


I’ll Be There

by crimsinsky



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Bad Friends, Best Friends, Cheating, Fighting, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Protectiveness, Stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:35:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 41,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29701353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsinsky/pseuds/crimsinsky
Summary: When Jackie finds out that Kelso cheated on her again, she was hurt that her so called friends didn’t tell her. A new friendship happens starts up, and an old relationship turns obsessive.
Relationships: Eric Forman/Donna Pinciotti, Jackie Burkhart/Michael Kelso, Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde, Kitty Forman/Red Forman
Comments: 271
Kudos: 76





	1. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing.  
> Jackie was Queen B, I know she was super insecure at times, but I really don’t think she would have put up with Kelso repeatedly cheating on her. I disregard the show’s timeline because it’s insane anyway, this starts at the beginning of Summer with Van Stock happening just before the start of the story. I haven’t seen the actual show in forever only clips on youtube, so little forgiveness with some inaccuracies. 
> 
> I personally would rate this as teen and up but I with the later chapters I just want to be clear it might not be for everyone even though it doesn't get graphic.  
> Kelso gets dark and crazy in this as the story goes on.  
> I’m trying to be careful with TW and CW for the later chapters if I miss something please let me know. Note this does have stalking and mentions of potential non con- Nothing happens with that but without giving it away it’s a situation where something could have happened if the other characters weren’t careful and they talk about it several times. If you want to read up to those points I will make it very clear at the start of those chapters.

Jackie hugged Laurie goodbye as she took the last of her things that she was taking with her in her move. 

Laurie paused before she reached the kitchen. She debated on this parting shot, she could walk away scot-free. But then she saw something of herself in Jackie, long ago before she was used and hurt and jaded. It’s why they simultaneously did and did not get along. They were an awful lot alike, well they would have been.

Laurie decided in an instant she was going to do some damage now, and maybe stop a little bit of heartbreak.

“Hey, Kelso I found a shirt of yours when I was cleaning out my room.” Laurie tossed his shirt at him as she went out.

Jackie eyed the shirt, “Michael why is your shirt in Laurie’s room.”

“That’s not mine, it must be Eric’s.”

She ripped the shirt out of his hands. “Your mom sewed your name into the collar, you idiot.”

“Aw man Eric’s going to be pissed,” Kelso said deflecting the accusation.

“This all makes perfect sense. You were cheating on me again,” Jackie threw the shirt in his face.

“What? No, I wasn’t. Come on Hyde tell her.”

“No can do man,” Hyde had been laying traps for weeks trying to get him caught again.

“Some friend you are?”

“Some friend I am?” Hyde asked incredulously, “You’re banging your best friend’s sister and cheating on your girlfriend. Don’t pin this on me.”

Jackie’s eyes blazed with the confirmation that her boyfriend was again cheating on her after he had sworn a million times he wouldn’t do that again. “What did you do it and just walk out of here shirtless?”

“Yea-NO! I didn’t do anything.”

“How long?” She demanded.

“I never cheated Jackie.”

Hyde started for the kitchen, “I’m gonna head downstairs, Three’s Company is on.”

Jackie looked at him strangely. 

“Oh my God, Three’s Company,” it clicked in her mind, “Steven knew when we went to Van Stock.”

“Come on Jackie,” Kelso pleaded he reached out for her but she shoved his hands away. 

“No, Michael. I’m done. I’m so sick of you treating me like this. I am Jacqueline Burkhart. I am better than this.” 

With one last shot at him, “And I’m better than you,” she stormed down into the basement looking for a sympathetic female ear.

“What’s going on?” Fez asked. 

Jackie sat down next to Donna.

“Donna, Michael’s been cheating on me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. And she was sorry that he had been messing around on Jackie.

“You’re sorry,” Jackie said slowly, she noticed Donna’s tone. “You’re sorry, but not surprised.”

“I- well not really,” Donna admitted.

Jackie stood up and looked at her friend, “Donna did you know?”

Donna didn’t lie, “Yeah, I just found out.”

“As in today found out?”

“No, right before Van Stock.”

“So you’ve had plenty of time to tell me.”

“I’m sorry Jackie,” Donna said.

“Oh my God, if you and Hyde knew so did Eric. And Fez?”

She turned to Fez, “Tell me the truth Fez. Did you know Michael was cheating on me?”

She stared him down.

He whined out “Yes.” 

“So all of you knew and none of you told me?”

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to hurt you and I knew this would,” Donna said.

“You’re right, I am hurt. But Michael cheating I can get over,” Jackie said.

“Alright!” Kelso cheered.

“But what I can’t get over is all of my friends lying to me, but I guess I never was right? I was just the dumb girl Michael was dating.”

“Jackie that’s not true,” Fez said.

“Well,” Eric started.

“It’s fine, I get it. Do I get it. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you guys anymore.”

“Jackie-” Donna called from the couch but let her go off.

She didn’t stop and continued up the outdoor stairs.

“She’ll get over it,” Eric said, “as soon as Kelso apologizes.”

“Well, looks like we’re free of Jackie for now,” Kelso said. 

Somehow that didn’t sit right with Hyde. He never liked to see any of his people hurt. Even Jackie.

Hyde went up the stairs into the kitchen and out the front door ignoring Mrs. Forman calling after him.

He looked down the road and saw Jackie about a block away.

“Jackie,” he called after her.

She didn’t turn back.

“Jackie,” he jogged after her, “come on.”

“What?” She spun on him. Tears were streaming down her face. “What do you want?”

“Just, come back I know you’re pissed but-”

“Why so you can all laugh at me to my face instead of behind my back.”

“No one was laughing at you.”

“Are you kidding me?” She spat, “Three’s Company, Steven.” 

“Look I was trying to let you know, I couldn’t outright tell you,” He admitted.

“And I’m just too dumb to figure it out. Is that it?”

“Jackie that’s not it.”

“Whatever.”

“Look if you’re going to leave, at least let me drive you home,” Hyde didn’t want her going off by herself like this.

Jackie wanted the comfort of anyone who would give it, but she would be strong. They didn’t want her, she didn’t need his pity.

She didn’t need them at all.

“I can take care of myself,” she turned and walked away.

By the time she reached home, she was sure she had blisters on her feet from the distance in her cute but uncomfortable shoes, she felt cold despite the summer heat.

She called out into the house. The maid wasn’t even there now, she appreciated the loneliness today, she threw her clothes onto the bathroom floor and took a shower. The pressure was so high that she could feel it making her skin raw.

Pulling herself from the shower she put on her pajamas and cried herself into a fitful sleep.


	2. Reconciliation

Waking in the morning, felt strange. For a moment she felt like it was all just a bad dream, but as she woke up more she knew it wasn’t. She’d woken up repeatedly all night, and the thoughts that kept her awake made her feel sick.

Cheating was one thing. She was plenty angry about that. But that was between her and Michael and Laurie she supposed. It didn’t matter, she wouldn’t put up with it.

They were done.

She was Jackie Freaking Burkhart, she wouldn’t let some guy play around on her anymore. She’d given him a second chance and he blew it. 

No, what really really hurt was the rest of them. She thought they’d been her friends too. At the very least Donna, Jackie had been there when her Mom moved across the country. She’d talked out her relationship with Eric over so many late-night phone calls it was impossible to tell if Jackie really hated Eric like she claimed.

Eric was the supplier of the basement. He didn’t have any other redeeming factors as far as popularity within the group. But if Donna had given Jackie her support, the chance was certainly greater that Eric would have been on her side.

Fez was a toss-up, sure he claimed he liked Jackie, but Michael was his best friend.

Then there was Steven. He had tried to get Michael caught. She could appreciate that, even if he was an idiot about it. But why had he tried at all?

The betrayal from the four of them honestly hurt more than finding out that Michael had cheated. She certainly wasn’t happy about it, it hurt like hell because she thought he’d loved her. Obviously not, but her friends. No, they definitely were not her friends.

Some part of her wished she could call and ask how long he’d been cheating, she’d need to get tested just to be safe. It would be humiliating and completely avoidable if one of them had said something.

Her dad’s car was in the driveway, she got dressed in something she would never put together. She didn’t wear makeup and did her hair differently and wore a scarf in her hair. Finally grabbing a large pair of sunglasses to complete the look.

The car was the one giveaway that it was her, but she supposed several people in town had a similar car, they just wouldn’t be sneaking off to the clinic.

She got there just as it opened and was in and out before anyone besides a doctor and a nurse saw her. They said they call her within a few days when the results were in.

She went home and threw out all the stupid things from her Michael box, really the rubber chicken should have been an end to it. After that she cleaned her room, she hated everything about it right now. It was too pink and she’d spent too much time with Michael in here, even Donna. She wanted a change. Maybe she could go to the mall and get a new bedspread.

The next day she tried to decide what to do, she couldn’t go to the basement. She thought about calling one of her cheerleader friends, but she didn’t like any of them.

Her stomach growled and that settled what she’d do for the next few minutes.

She went into the kitchen. Still, no one was there. No maid, no parents. Again.

She’d told Hyde that she could take care of herself, well, she’d have to start now it seemed.

Jackie had absolutely no idea how to cook but cereal and sandwiches were manageable so she scrounged around and found lunch meat and cheese.

Here she was taking care of herself.

She didn’t need anyone.

But then the sandwich was gone and she had nothing else to do.

Get dressed? Go shopping? No, she didn’t feel like doing anything, but she didn’t want to be alone.

Someone rang the doorbell. She peaked outside. It was Michael. She kept the door chained but opened it.

“Go away, Michael.”

“Look Jackie I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”

“Good. You should be sorry.”

“And I hurt your feelings and I want to make it up to you.”

Her heart ached, she loved Michael and she hated being alone, and he was right there.

“Please give me another chance.”

All she had to do was forgive him.

Again.

Like she had before, the last time he’d cheated.

And he’d said he was sorry then too. And he’d never do it again.

And he had.

But she wouldn’t.

“No Michael. We’re through. I mean it.”

“Jackie please, I know we can work this out.”

“I don’t care, Michael. Don’t come back here.”

She closed the door softly and locked it.

Michael left.

Suddenly the silence was screeching.

She couldn’t be in this house alone any longer.

She didn’t need to be with anyone but she needed to be around someone. Anyone.

Except Michael.

With a new purpose, it was less overwhelming to be alone.

She put on a record to drown out the quiet.

Getting dressed she took extra time with her hair and makeup. No one would spread any rumors that Jackie Burkhart didn’t look amazing when she went out. She was not brokenhearted, she was free.

It had been a few hours by the time she’d gotten her hair and makeup just perfect.

Her parents had luckily left the Lincoln again when they went wherever they went. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure her father had even come home the last few days.

She got in and turned up the radio, it didn’t matter what it was, just as long as there was noise in her head other than the hurtful thoughts that kept swirling around.

Driving around for a while left her bored. She didn’t want to go to the mall and she could have watched a movie at home.

She went to The Hub and got a burger, more to be around the buzz of noise.

Taking a seat in the corner so she wouldn’t be too noticeable she looked like she was ignoring everyone. She was so focused on listening to the general noise and eating that she almost jumped when the seat next to her scraped backwards.

Realizing she was now trapped between the table and the wall she started to panic until she saw who had claimed the chair.

“Look I know you’re pissed and you get to be but you’re also going to listen,” Steven said.

“I am, am I?” she shot back defiantly. She was Jackie Burkhart, something all of them seemed to have forgotten.

“Yeah, just eat your food while I talk.”

She glared at him. “You have two minutes to talk before I scream.”

He smirked at her. “Fine,” he held out his wrist so they could both see the seconds tick by on his watch.

“We knew, we all knew because at some point he told us or we caught him. Donna did just find out, but Kelso has been our friend longer and you don’t nark on your friend.”

Jackie was about to say something but he kept talking, “That’s why I kept trying to get him caught. That was the easy way out and yeah one of us should have said something. I wasn’t laughing at you at Van Stock, I was laughing at Kelso because he was so freaked with both you and Lauriehanging out. He was crap to you but so were we. I was at least and Jackie I’m sorry.”

That surprised her to no end.

Steven Hyde did not apologize, he’d say ‘sorry’ right before he’d punch you in the arm. He’d say ‘sorry’ in a mocking or sing-song voice so you know he didn’t mean it. But this, Jackie, thought he might mean.

Jackie wondered at this.

“Did Michael send you?”

“No,” he said quickly, “and I wouldn’t apologize for him. I came to get some food and saw you and- I screwed up ok?”

She looked at him. For once he wasn’t wearing his aviators, Jackie could read a lot in his eyes maybe that’s why he always wore them. She decided the apology was genuine.

Jackie let herself relax a little and took a bite of her burger.

“I told him I don’t want to see him again,” telling someone felt freeing, like she would be okay now.

“Yeah he told us, I did not see that coming.”

“What does that mean?” She asked, more curious than angry now.

“You two just usually end up back together pretty fast.”

“Yeah, well there’s a point you cross and can’t go back. This is mine.” Jackie chewed her food and thought. “I know you never really liked me but even so, were we ever friends?”

Were they? Why the hell had he felt sick all day and night remembering her crying in the street? Why did he feel completely relieved to finally see her at this table safe and unharmed? “Yeah, we’re friends.”

She nodded her head still thinking about what she was going to say next. She would have told Donna if the roles were reversed, but the betrayal that only Steven who claimed to dislike her the most out of everyone had tried to tell her hurt more than Michael cheating.

“Steven,” she turned towards him. “I don’t forgive you because I’m still mad. And I can never watch Three’s Company again which is totally your fault.”

“I get it.” He couldn’t blame her for being mad.

“But maybe,” she began, “I can forgive you soon, when I’m less angry.”

“What are you saying?”

“If we are friends, then go get your food and eat with me, and I’ll think about forgiving you.”

They sat and talked a little, mostly eating their food neither wanting to go home to their miserable lives. Jackie didn’t want to be alone, and even though Steven was living with the Forman’s now, he always felt like he owed more than he could repay. Sometimes it was hard being there.

As it got late and the hub was closing, they sat on the tailgate of the El Camino.

“You want to come to the basement tomorrow?” Hyde asked her, after all, she’d forgiven him pretty easily.

“No. I know Michael sort of apologized but he’s Michael.”

“What’s that mean?”

“He doesn’t mean it. He says he’s sorry and pouts, I forgive him, he does it again. Rinse and repeat. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

“Okay.”

“And I know you tried in your own sick twisted little way to tell me,” she forced a little bit of smile to show she was joking, “but no one else tried. I mean Laurie was acting like my new best friend while she was sleeping with my boyfriend. I’m sure she was making fun of me behind my back the whole time. Who does that? I don’t want to talk to any of them. Not right now.”

“So why are you still talking to me?” He genuinely wanted to know. He knew she didn’t like Eric that much but Donna and Fez she did.

“I meant it yesterday, I don’t think anyone else has been my friend there.”

“Sure they are.” But were they? He wondered, none of them had really been that great to her. Himself included.

“Not Eric, and Fez keeps creeping up on me. That leaves Donna. I thought she was my best friend. Donna could have tried calling me that night, or yesterday, or today. I didn’t think you liked me at all and you still apologized, and you tried to take me home the other day. Which thanks for both.”

He shrugged. She was right, Eric didn’t like her, hell he hadn’t really either much of the time, but she didn’t deserve to be continuously cheated on. Donna was more annoyed by Jackie than anything, which left Fez, and Jackie was right, he was always trying to push his luck with her.

Jackie tossed the empty soda cup in the nearby trashcan.

“You don’t need to tell them we hung out. I don’t want to make it awkward for you.”

Hyde nodded, of course, he was poor and too insignificant for her to grace him with her presence. “Don’t worry Princess, I won’t tell anyone you were hanging out with a lowlife like me.”

“Who would care?” She asked flatly. The silent I haven’t got anyone else wasn’t lost on him. “And you’re not a lowlife.”

Then she softened, “I just know Michael’s your friend and it might make it weird for you at Eric’s.”

He didn’t know where it came from but the words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them. “Screw ‘em, I don’t care if they know we hung out, we’re friends we can do whatever we feel like.”

Suddenly she felt some of the cold detachment leaving her.

She offered him a small smile, maybe she wasn’t quite as alone as she thought. “Thanks, Steven.”

“G’night.

“Good night.”

Jackie drove home. She felt much lighter than she had when she left. But yet again, she was alone.


	3. Regrets

Jackie had woken up very early to try and have breakfast with her dad, it worked. Though he hadn’t been overly talkative, he was delighted that Jackie had finally come to her senses over the Kelso boy. Even giving her a little reward for it.

He’d left to go to work and Jackie was left on her own again.

That afternoon when the phone rang she hoped it was Donna, she would have even taken one of the girls from cheer. Unless they knew about her breakup, then it would be nothing but fake pity hiding catty comments.

Instead, it was the most wonderful voice in the world. A receptionist from the clinic saying that everything was clear.

Jackie could have kissed her.

She hung up feeling much lighter.

The phone rang again almost as soon as she set it down, expecting that maybe she forgot to tell Jackie something she grabbed it,

“Hello, was there something else?”

“Hey it’s me.”

“Steven?” Jackie never would have expected him to call her.

“You want to go to a movie?”

“Sure,” she replied immediately.

“You didn’t even ask what’s playing?”

“I don’t care,” she told him.

He chuckled into the phone, “You are so going to regret that doll.”

They left the theater with Jackie grimacing, “That was so gross.”

“Yeah, but you handled it like a champ.”

“I wasn’t scared it was just so gooey,” her face scrunched remembering the disgusting zombie parts oozing across the screen.

“I’m surprised that’s all that bothered you,”

Of any girl, Jackie should have been the prime example of jumping in terror or hiding her face when something scary happened on screen.

She hadn’t even flinched.

“Please you think those Zombies are scary try, camping with a bunch of cheerleaders with no hot water for two weeks.”

Steven looked at his watch, “You have to go to work?”

“No, I quit the cheese Shoppe.”

“Good for you.”

“I told Daddy I broke up with Michael and he gave me back my credit card. I’m not wearing that stupid dress for no good reason.”

“I don’t know it was kinda hot,” Steven said with a smirk.

She smacked him in the arm.

“Pig,” but there was no malice behind the words. 

“Not my fault, you got nice legs.”

“I know I do,” she said confidently. Then she was a little less assured, “Steven, could you really see my butt in that dress.”

He laughed at her, he really wanted to tell her yes and watch her squirm, but she’d been different yesterday, maybe off or wrong was a better word for it, and he didn’t want to be the reason she fell back to that place.

“No, I was kidding.”

She let out a breath, “Good. I always wondered. I started wearing my gym shorts under it.”

“I’m sorry about that,” he felt like an ass if had made her that uncomfortable.

“Nah, it wasn’t just because of that. I couldn’t move in that stupid dress, I wasn’t about to give out a free show.”

He bit back every sarcastic reply that popped into his head.

He didn’t really feel like hanging in the basement with the rest of the group. He was bored of no one ever doing anything, and always complaining about it.

Today though, he’d had fun. And they were friends, right?

“So,” he asked her, “you want to do something tomorrow?”

_A Few Days Before…._

Hyde had felt like a huge ass when he’d come back to the basement after trying to give Jackie a ride home. It wasn’t his fault that Kelso was a cheat, but it was his fault he kept his mouth shut.

They needed to end that stupid pact they’d made when they were kids. How were Forman and he supposed to know Kelso would be such an idiot when he grew up? Well, got older.

“Looks like we’re finally free of Jackie,” he vaguely heard Eric say.

“She’ll come back,” Kelso said with a smirk, “she always does. She’s hooked.”

Hyde thought it was benevolent of him that he didn’t punch Kelso in the head for being an ass. Instead, Hyde went to his room, put on a record, it didn’t matter which one, and lay down.

He tried to disassociate into his Zen, but the image of Jackie crying, Jackie realizing everyone was keeping secrets from her, Jackie storming off down the street, all of these flooded his mind.

All of it came unbidden but he couldn’t shake it. He felt guilty. Jackie acted tough in her way, and bitchy, but she was just so young. They were all young but there was something about the pink princess that was more innocent than him or even Donna whose own mom had left her last year.

Jackie didn’t have real problems and she probably felt more hurt by it.

Finally, he fell asleep but didn’t sleep well. The next day when he saw Donna he asked if Jackie had called her.

“No, she probably will today though, she never can stay mad at anyone.”

“I don’t know, she’s never been that mad before,” Hyde said trying to sound casual about it.

Donna shrugged, “So I’ll get a few extra Jackie-free days.”

Hyde merely nodded.

When Jackie didn’t appear the day after that he started to feel the guilt weighing on him.

Kelso announced that he was going to go get Jackie back.

That wasn’t very thrilling for the rest of them but Hyde didn’t hate Jackie anymore and figured it was only a matter of time before they got back together.

An hour later Kelso came in slamming the door behind him.

“I take it, it didn’t go well?” Donna asked not really caring one way or the other.

“She said no,” Kelso shouted as he threw himself into a seat on the couch.

“We got that,” Eric said never looking away from the television.

“Jackie seriously told me we’re through..”

“Then there’s your answer,” Donna told him. “Leave her alone. Maybe she’ll forgive you later but you don’t deserve it.”

He scoffed, “How can you say that?”

“Because you cheated, dill-hole. It wasn’t even the first time.”

Kelso threw himself down on the chair. “Well, I don’t want her back. She’s awful anyway, and crazy, and…”

Whatever else he was saying Hyde tuned out and he walked upstairs. He told Mrs. Forman he was going out so she didn’t need to make dinner for him. 

He drove around before deciding to waste some time at the Hub, and there he found Jackie alone at a table.

He didn’t plan what he was doing or saying but his body moved on its own and the next thing he knew he was sitting next to her and apologizing.

What surprised him more was that she forgave him. He went home that night feeling better, but he knew she was hurt and hurt deeply. Not even by Kelso, by the rest of them.

The next day he got up, did his chores, and had breakfast. It felt off without Jackie around. She’d been coming around to the basement for so long that it felt strange knowing she wouldn’t be coming back any time soon.

“You talk to the princess lately?” Hyde asked Donna when they were watching TV again.

“No.”

“Aren’t you her best friend? Shouldn’t you check on her or something?”

Donna laughed, “Trust me if Jackie wants to talk, Jackie will talk.”

“Don’t worry about Jackie, man. She’s probably off with her cheerleaders. Besides, we have the pact, we’re on Kelso’s side,” Eric said. 

They were eight when they made that stupid pact, they’d covered for Kelso enough times that they really had earned the right to pick and choose how far they were going to follow that. Hell, he’d gotten them arrested before and they stuck by him. If Jackie was dumb to take him back before, what did that say about them?

“Yeah,” Hyde said. “We need to get out of that, he’s already gotten us arrested once.”

“He’s our friend,” Eric shrugged, not seeing a real problem with it.

Hyde was bored of watching endless reruns and their conversation. He got up and went upstairs, he didn’t know why he did it but he picked up the phone and called Jackie.

Her resounding ‘I don’t care,” to whatever movie they were going to see was a challenge he couldn’t resist. Of course, there were movies he thought she’d like better and maybe he should have picked one of those since she was down, but he simply couldn’t help himself.

There was a tinge of disappointment covered by surprise that Jackie hadn’t been scared by the monster movie, nor did she have a bad time.

“So,” he asked her, “you want to do something tomorrow?”


	4. Endings

They spent the next few weeks in an isolated bubble. They hung out and Hyde found Jackie wasn’t quite as shallow as she seemed, Jackie figured out that Steven was that surly but behind it, he was a deeply caring person. They could and did bicker and argue but it was harmless.

The rest of the group hadn’t noticed Hyde’s disappearances. Surprisingly, none of them could keep their mouths shut so if they hadn’t brought it up they hadn’t noticed or cared.

Still, Steven was sure none of them suspected that he was hanging out with Jackie.

She’d gotten over the clinginess that she’d always had with Kelso and Donna, and they could sit comfortably in silence.

They couldn’t avoid it forever, one day their friends came up in conversation and Jackie told Steven everything she was feeling. How she did care that she’d been cheated on, but she wasn’t heartbroken over it. What had hurt her, which Steven already knew, was that she felt alone and that no one cared about her. Everyone was loyal to Michael who was doing something wrong, and no one had been loyal to her, who hadn’t.

The days went on and still, no one else tried to apologize. Michael called Jackie a few times, which Jackie refused to meet with him or talk until finally having as close to a conversation as she was going to give him.

“Michael, you need to get over it. You want to sleep with as many girls as possible. But I’m not going to be one of those girls. I don’t hate you, but I don’t care about you either. Please move on and stop calling me,” she hung up without waiting for a response.

Hyde didn’t hear about it from Jackie, he was in the basement when Kelso showed up fuming at everyone.

Eric tried to calmly point out, “Kelso you’re already seeing another girl from the rival high school, so why do you want Jackie as a girlfriend. You didn’t really like her.”

“Because she’s mine,” He said petulantly.

That bristled Donna, “Kelso, she isn’t yours. Jackie was with you, you screwed up. She doesn’t want to talk to you anymore, leave her alone.”

“Seriously,” Eric agreed, “it’s getting ridiculous.”

Hyde kept his mouth shut because if he didn’t he was going to lose it. He needed to calm down before he said anything to Kelso.

Because frankly, he didn’t deserve Jackie. She was a hell of a lot too good for him, she was kinder than he thought and smart.

Kelso left when he didn’t get the support he expected.

Hyde took a slow breath to calm down before he asked Donna, “Are you friends with Jackie again?” He already knew the answer.

For the first time Donna started to look a little guilty, “No, I don’t think she’s in town anyway. Probably on vacation or at cheer camp.”

Hyde knew Jackie was in one of three places at the moment, her backyard, her living room, or in her bedroom. Cheer camp wasn’t until the end of August and she probably wasn’t going this year because there had been some issue with bacteria in the camp lake and it would likely be canceled.

Something about the conversation bothered him and he couldn’t explain why. Maybe it was that their “friends” hadn’t even tried. The guys he got, but Donna threw him. Jackie had practically lived with her for a few weeks when her mom left town.

After that Hyde stopped trying.

He stopped asking Jackie if she wanted to hang out in the basement because he didn’t feel like it either, and he stopped bringing her up to Donna.

Donna might have been Jackie’s best friend but Donna wasn’t hers.

None of them saw anything wrong with what they did. And as much as he’d like for everyone to get along again, the fact was no one was on Jackie’s side.

Except him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed that some of the chapters are going to be a bit more self reflective than heavy on plot or dialogue. They'll probably be super short. 
> 
> I don’t want to trash Donna but she was kind of awful to Jackie sometimes and didn’t really live up to her feminist ideas all the time. Which is totally human and realistic, but that also has consequences. Donna is starting to feel a little bad about what happened. 
> 
> Thank you for everyone that's reading. I did not expect so many comments on this work but I am LOVING IT! I’ll work on answering everyone tonight but I wanted to get this one posted because I really want to get the next ones finished and one of the chapters I need to rework.
> 
> Post soon and stay safe everyone.


	5. Burned

Hyde couldn’t accept his friends complete dismissal of their other friend, so Hyde and Jackie stayed in their own little world. He wouldn’t have minded at all if he didn’t know Jackie was still hurt over losing the basement group.

At least a few times a week they tried to get out and actually do something more than hang out. There were only so many games they could play and so long they could sit in her empty house.

It was different from the basement. Kitty and Red had made their house a warm and inviting home. Even without them there, you felt affection coming off of everything in that house.

Jackie’s house was designed, decorated to show status. There was one formal picture of her and her parents. There were no birthday party pictures, no notes on the fridge, personal belongings forgotten on the table. It was formal and cold.

He didn’t really like staying there too much.

Jackie didn’t seem to either.

Hyde hadn’t asked, but he was starting to see the cracks in her perfect life. It was weird that he’d never seen Jackie’s parents. Not even passing one in the driveway, as much as he was over he should have ran into one of her parents by now.

As summer stretched slowly on Jackie wanted to go out. It didn’t matter much what it was, but he guessed she was going stir crazy with just him to hang out with.

Hyde had no idea how she’d talked him into it, but here he was waiting for her outside of the dressing rooms at the mall. No that wasn’t true, he knew exactly how she got him to the mall. He ranted about how malls were a corporate scam, when he was done, Jackie pouted, pushed out her bottom lip, and said “Pwease.”

He was powerless.

So here he was still waiting while she tried on clothes.

“Jackie come on,” he growled for the third time.

“I can’t, the zipper is stuck.”

She groaned as she fought with it.

“Is there anyone who works here?”

He looked around, “Only the counter girl and there’s a line.”

“Steven,” she peeked her head out shyly, “Can you help me?”

He was about to refuse.

“If you help me we can leave.”

That sounded good to him.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

She opened the door and turned around, she pulled her hair across her shoulder and Steven fought with the zipper. Finally, it lowered, exposing her back. He thought about pushing the straps away and pushing the dress off of her.

Steven pulled his hands away like he’d been burned.

“Thank god,” Jackie sighed in relief, “I thought I was going to have to buy this just to get home.”

“You’re free now.”

“Thanks a bunch.”

What was he doing? This was Jackie, he was not supposed to be having thoughts like that about Jackie.

They were friends that was it.

Jackie was out in a flash and hung up the clothes that didn’t fit on the rack.

“I’m over shopping, let’s get food.”

“Yeah alright,” Steven said, still a little dazed.

“Are you okay?” She asked him.

“I’m fine,” he said quickly.

“Okay.” She shrugged it off, he got weird when he was hungry sometimes.

They sat in the food court, relishing in the air conditioning.

“One more stop after food then we can go home if you want,” Jackie told him.

Hyde was feeling more like himself now, he was probably just hungry, that’s all that thing in the dressing room was. “Jackie, how many more clothing stores do you need to go to?”

“Shush. And it’s not clothes, you’ll like it.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“Want to bet?” She knew him, he couldn’t ignore a challenge.

“You don’t have anything I want,” he said casually trying to put the invasive thoughts from earlier away.

“Sounds like someone who knows they’ll lose,” Jackie pushed.

He didn’t comment.

“Something small then, whoever wins picks what we do next week.”

“Anything?” He asked intrigued.

“Anything. For the whole week,” she added.

“I’ll take that bet,” he shook her hand.

They left the mall and she gave him directions to where she wanted to go. He parked the car in front of a ratty old shop.

It was so dingy that even he wasn’t sure about going inside. What had the princess gotten him into?

“Where the hell are we?” He asked.

“Come on,” Jackie got out of the car, “You’ll see when we get inside, you’ll love it.”

“Jackie, how the hell did you find this place?”

“Cindy from cheer, her boyfriend worked here, she told me about it once. I checked it out last week.”

“You went in here, alone?” Somehow the idea of Jackie going into places like this alone bothered him. She was so little it wouldn’t be hard to take her somewhere she didn’t want to be.

“Yes, I’m not completely helpless,” she said irritably.

They walked past the crumbling exterior door into a bookstore.

“Huh,” this wasn’t exactly what he expected. From the outside, he wasn’t sure if he should expect a crack den or something, but a bookstore was not even in the top 100 guesses he’d had.

Jackie was practically bouncing on her heels.

“This isn’t all of it come on,” she took his hand and led him to the back and then down some stairs.

There was a record store underneath the bookshop. New records, used records, rare ones.

It was his kind of heaven.

“Isn’t it amazing? I thought you’d love it.” Jackie smiled brightly, she knew this was exactly his kind of place.

“You came here alone and just went down some back alley steps into a basement?”

“It was fine,” she waved him off.

“Jackie, you can be really dumb sometimes.”

Hyde watched her excitement turn into fury, he knew full well he was about to enter into one of Jackie’s moods. “Well, what else am I supposed to do? I can’t call you for everything.”

“Yes, you can if it means not getting kidnapped.”

“I wasn’t going to get kidnapped.”

“You can be really naïve sometimes.”

Crossing her arms she didn’t want to fight but she was ready to. “Steven, if you don’t stop griping at me and look at the damn store I’m going to kick you in the shins till you bleed.”

Neither was going to win this argument, at least not standing in said record store.

She marched away from him and started browsing.

Why _was_ he so pissed at her? Hyde wondered. He was right she could be naïve, but it was Point Place. Still, bad things happened everywhere, and she didn’t seem to know that.

He watched her scowling at the shelves. He knew she was really scowling at him but wouldn’t look at him now.

He called over to her, “You win.”

She looked up surprised at his gentler tone, “Huh?”

“This place is great.”

“I told you,” she said with a clipped tone.

“So you win the bet.”

“Oh, cool.” she said flatly. Her heart wasn’t in it anymore.

Damn, he knew he’d have to work harder than that to get her to forgive him. He was going to have to apologize again.

The drive home was eerily silent.

Hyde knew she wouldn’t break it, screaming Jackie was easy to deal with, silent Jackie was a hurt one. “Look I’m sorry I overreacted.”

Jackie wasn’t going to just accept it, “Why were you so mad at me?”

“I wasn’t mad at you.”

“Sure seemed like it.”

“Jackie-” how did he explain it, he didn’t totally understand his reaction. “You don’t seem to think anything bad can happen to you.”

“That’s not true, but Cindy’s boyfriend worked there. It’s okay.”

“But, you didn’t know that.”

“You’re the one who told me we don’t have a bad side of town,” she reminded him.

“Bad people are everywhere.”

She rolled her eyes at him, he was such a contradiction.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt okay,” Hyde admitted.

He said it with such an honest sincerity she believed him. She didn’t think she’d done anything, but she could compromise when she needed to.

“Okay, next time I’ll take someone with me if I don’t know about the place.”

“Thank you.”

They stopped and got ice cream, they sat in the back of his car again.

“Steven, have you told them?” He knew what she was asking without her spelling it out. She liked that about him. She didn’t need to take care of everything with him.

“No, they all pretty much took Kelso’s side so I didn’t want to mention it.” He didn’t need to hurt her more by admitting that he’d tried to get Donna to call her and she hadn’t.

“Then where do they think you are when you’re hanging out with me?”

“They don’t even ask. Kelso and Fez aren’t the brightest at noticing and Forman and Donna barely come up for air.”

“Come on you’ve hung out with me nearly every day, you can’t tell me they don’t notice you haven’t been around much?”

“I usually get up and walk out without a word and nobody mentions it when I came back hours later.”

Jackie frowned. She wanted to say that they weren’t very good friends to him either, but would she have even noticed if he was missing a year ago? She hoped she would but she didn’t know for sure.

Instead, she changed the subject, “I can’t wait to plan our week out. Oh, I know, we should go to the roller disco and then go to an art class.”

Steven groaned. It was going to be a long week.

Jackie smiled brightly, “How are you at macramé?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of this one already finished so I'm going to try and post one chapter per day to catch up, unless I'm inpatient which I really am so if a chapter is short I might double post on those days. I'll try to make a note if I do post multiples. 
> 
> I so appreciate the response to this one. I loved writing the developing friendship in this story and so many of the chapters have favorite moments. This chapter is one of those ones I really love.


	6. One Week

Jackie did not force Steven into doing any of the awful (for him) things she listed off. Jackie had planned the best week she could imagine in a small town.

Monday: Hyde had to work but after work, she dragged him to the lake, and though he didn’t swim they enjoyed the cool air from the water.

Tuesday: Art Class

Jackie beamed when she told him what they were doing, and Hyde could not complain until they got there.

Hyde dreaded it the whole way but kept his mouth shut because he told her she won the bed.

Jackie gave directions.

“Jackie, if you had to sign us up for art classes couldn’t you find one in point place?”

“Steven Hyde, I believe part of the bet was you had to do _anything_ I said wasn’t it?” She said slowly.

He scowled, “It was.”

“And I think I said you could not complain until we got there.” She smiled, “You sound like you’re complaining.”

Her smile was irritating him. He knew he was stuck.

He stopped talking.

“Now I picked the one in Madison because it was tonight, and I figured you wouldn’t want a bunch of people we know to see you in an art class with me.”

“I wouldn’t care,” he shrugged. Then he silently thanked his lucky stars because, he wouldn’t have minded being seen with Jackie, but he did not want to be caught in whatever girly art class thing this turned out to be.

“Make a right here and get in this line of traffic,” Jackie finally said.

There was more traffic than Hyde expected.

“You sure this is right?”

“Yep,” she said still smiling.

He knew this would be embarrassing as hell if she was smiling this much.

Jackie leaned to the side, “just follow these cars and we’ll be there park wherever.”

That didn’t seem right, but he did what she told him.

Jackie grabbed a big bag from the back and made Hyde carry it.

“Jackie, what is this?”

She didn’t answer him and only dragged him along until he saw the signs.

 _Concert in the Park- Tuesday Night_

He stopped.

Jackie looked so pleased with herself.

“I knew you wouldn’t back out of the bet but I couldn’t help messing with you.”

He laughed at her. “Yeah, I deserved that.”

The bag was packed with a blanket that they spread out on the hill and waited for the concert to start.

They listened to some good bands, and some not-great ones, which they made fun of on the way home.

Wednesday: Bowling after a movie. Jackie lost, Hyde only mildly rubbed it in. 

Thursday: They returned to the bookstore.

“I’m not making any bets with you this time,” Hyde said instantly.

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Your loss. I know you had fun this week. I am an excellent planner.”

Hyde fought his smirk, but Jackie caught it. “It was alright.”

They spent hours looking this time.

Hyde bought her a copy of 1984 to read and she bought him a Fleetwood Mac album. They both agreed the other had to give it an honest attempt at appreciating. 

Friday: They went to the drive-in and watched a double feature of House of Wax and Night of the Living Dead.

Jackie stole half his popcorn and Steven pretended to mind. 

She fell asleep on his shoulder on the drive home.

He hated waking her up but he had to. Sleepily Jackie kissed him on the cheek and went inside. He waited for the light to come on before he went home.

It had been a pretty awesome week.

Through all of it, Hyde pushed away those crazy thoughts he’d had about Jackie.

But sometimes at night when he couldn’t quiet his mind enough to sleep, they came back against his will.

Jackie smiled constantly. That should annoy him.

What did anyone have so much to be happy about?

But it didn’t annoy him.

Jackie was just happy, even when things sucked she plastered a smile on and got on with things. But Hyde had learned to tell the difference between her fake smile and the real one.

And this week it had been nothing but the real ones.

She was so soft and girly. It was weird to think of her as a friend but she got him in a different way than the others.

Their friendship had taken years to develop. He really hated her annoying cheerleader energy, and she hated his rudeness.

But then she’d run to talk to him over Donna. She’d manipulated him into taking her to prom, Hyde had liked taking her despite what he’d said, but she was still so hung up on Kelso it didn’t mean anything.

But this summer he’d gotten to really know her and see behind the facade she wore. There was so much more to Jackie than anyone realized.

Her asshole ex was his friend. Or he used to be, he didn’t remember the last time he’d talked to Kelso, let alone hang out with him. Hyde certainly didn’t like Kelso right now.

The more he thought about it the more he realized if it came down to an ultimatum, her or them, he’d pick her.

Hell, hadn’t he already picked her?

He didn’t know when it happened but he was on her side no matter what. He couldn’t say the same about the others. He loved Eric like his brother, and he didn’t blame Eric, not really. He and Jackie never got along, but he couldn’t help being disappointed in him. Eric was like the moral compass of the group. If he wasn’t willing to point out what was wrong, it would all fall apart.

Donna was the one he was angry with, she completely gave up on Jackie. He didn’t want to tell Donna to call and apologize, he suggested it and that’s all he should do. Donna was her own person and she either took Jackie for granted or didn’t care. Neither option was okay with Hyde.

Kelso was Kelso. He was a big baby about everything, and really after that crack about Jackie still being his, Hyde couldn’t stand to be around him. He was childish and wanted something so no one else could have it. No matter that Jackie wanted nothing to do with him.

Hyde didn’t love many people, but he knew if you love someone you don’t treat them as replaceable. You value them. You don’t cheat on someone with every girl that looks you’re way and tell your girlfriend you love them at the same time. That wasn’t love.

Hyde was no saint, he’d been with a lot of girls, but he’d never had a girlfriend either.

That’s partly why he didn’t mind setting traps to get Kelso caught. Kelso didn’t value anything or anyone. He’d go after Donna in a heartbeat if he didn’t think she’d break his arm for trying something. Laurie should have also been off-limits but Kelso didn’t care if it made Eric uncomfortable.

And yeah, Hyde had tried his luck with Donna, more than he should have he admitted. But she made a choice and it wasn’t him. So Steven stepped aside and left her alone after that.

He decided then he wasn’t sticking to that stupid pact again. As much as he cared about Eric, he wouldn’t cover for his friends again if it meant breaking his own code.

He’d broken it before for Kelso. This time he’d protect Jackie better.

She deserved that at least.

They were friends.

Just friends.

What he refused to acknowledge was his protectiveness over Jackie was not _just friends_.

He didn’t call and make sure anyone else got home okay.

He never went clothes shopping with anyone else.

He didn’t like her more than a friend.

He couldn’t allow himself to like her as more.

It would never be on the table. Jackie was a princess and he was the burnout crashing in his friends’ basement.

She’d find someone who treated her better, who could take her on fancy dates.

Someone who wasn’t him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In checking something I realized have no idea when this is taking place. It’s in a strange enigma of AU time. I wasn’t planning on following any specific seasons plot lines but this whole story happened right after “Laurie Moves Out” but it’s closer to “Van Stock” which I thought was in season 4. So I kinda mega messed up some plot/time lines. So it’s vaguely season 2/3 but I’ll probably throw in other random seasons because I can’t remember when they happened. (I need to buy the dvds and get my life sorted.)


	7. Bridge Over Troubled Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *TW/CW for this and then next chapter. There is NO non con in this chapter but they do talk vaguely about Jackie could have been hurt. That’s going to come up several times in the story. I don’t know if it’s really TW worthy but I would rather be safe than upset anyone.

It was a hot Monday morning, Steven was working the day shift and Jackie called up a few of the cheer girls to go to the pool. She didn’t really want to hang out with them, but they didn’t need to talk just to sit in the sun and tan or swim.

Plus Steven didn’t like the pool.

They gossiped a little then reclined to their individual chairs to soak in some sun.

A boy came up to talk to them while they were getting drinks from the snack bar.

“Hey, Jackie.”

“Hi, Grant.”

“Do you still have that boyfriend?” He asked glancing around.

“Ugh, no. I broke up with him at the beginning of summer.”

“Cool, so would you like to go out with me?”

“Oh, uh. I don’t know.” Why didn’t she know? He was good looking and she knew he was rich.

“Why not Jackie?” Cindy asked her.

“You totally should,” Amanda pushed

“Okay,” she said feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“Great tomorrow?”

“Sure,” she said waving him off. Jackie should have been excited, but for some reason, she wasn’t. 

That night she and Hyde were hanging outside of Fatso Burger.

“What’s the matter with you?” He asked her, she’d been distracted all evening.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been kind of out of it.”

“Don’t make fun of me, I have a date tomorrow night,” she cringed.

Steven was hit by a strange feeling of dread and entertained. “You sound thrilled.”

“He’s not a bad guy, but I don’t know. I shouldn’t have said yes but now I agreed.”

“You can always bail.”

“But I said I would, it just feels weird.”

“Who is it?”

“Grant Billings.”

“Huh.” He knew him mostly by reputation, he wasn’t one of the Jocks who bullied his friends, but he was a rich prep, the kind of people Hyde avoided, and Jackie fit right in with.

“I kind of panicked.”

“You like him?”

“No, but I don’t know it was kind of nice to be asked.”

“Free meal,” he offered as the bright side.

She agreed. Neither one knew why they weren’t happy about her date.

Jackie had a date.

She’d proven that she was desirable and that other boys still liked her. And not just any boy.

Grant Billings.

He was rich, good-looking, his father ran a very successful business, he was absolutely perfect on paper.

And so completely boring.

Jackie smiled her way through the salad course when all he talked about was his car, but only how it looked. She knew enough about engines and specifications thanks to Red, but all he knew was it was blue and the seats were leather.

Whoop-de-doo, she thought. Even Leo could have held a better conversation, it might not have made a lick of sense but it would at least be entertaining.

Grant asked her a few questions about cheer, but before the main dish, he said something surprising.

“Yeah, Kelso said you broke up a while back.”

That threw her, he had acted like he hadn’t known when he’d asked her out.

“You know Michael?” she asked confused about what was going on.

“He lives down the road from my aunt.”

“Oh, right,” she answered like it was obvious. But it wasn’t. She didn’t understand.

“He said you were cool.”

“Thanks,” well that wasn’t too bad she thought. Most people had an ex, no big deal.

“So how long?”

“How long for what?”

“You know, how long do I gotta take you out till… you know?”

Jackie felt her stomach drop. It was a split second to go between confused to rage, “No, I don’t know. Explain it to me,” she snapped.

“Uh, well…”

“You are disgusting.” She pulled out some money from her bag and slammed it down on the table, “don’t ever talk to me or about me again, creep.” She kicked him hard under the table and stormed off.

She got all the way outside before she realized he had picked her up at her house.

Her anger dissolved into fear. It was starting to get dark, she was wearing heels, and she was really far from home. There was a cab company but you usually had to give advanced notice. 

Looking around she found a payphone.

She called home, the phone rang until the answering machine picked up.

“Daddy, are you there? I need you to pick me up.” She waited and no one picked up the phone, she read the number off the payphone and said she’d try to find another way home.

Now she was scared.

Once upon a time, she could ask Mr. Forman, but not anymore.

She had to suck up her pride and ask for help. It was that or go back to her stupid date and that could turn out even worse.

She flipped through the phonebook and found the Photo Hut’s number and called it. If this didn’t work she’d call Mr. Forman and beg, she was prideful not an idiot. He’d help her, maybe he wouldn’t even mention it to anyone.

This was a long shot, it rang a few times and she was about to hang up when she heard a disgruntled voice.

“Photo Hut, we’re closed.”

“Steven,” she practically cried into the phone.

“Jackie? What’s the matter?”

“I’m so sorry, but my date- I can’t.”

“Where are you?” He almost yelled into the receiver.

“I’m at a phone booth on Clark and Greenfield. Please can you pick me up? I called home but no one answered.”

“Jackie, calm down. Did he hurt you?” Hyde was far from calm himself. 

“No, he was-just- I’ll tell you later.”

“I’ll be there in like fifteen minutes. Is there anything open around you?” She looked around and everything was closed, well almost everything.

“Uh, there’s a diner across the street.”

“Ok, just look out and run inside, order a soda or something and I’ll be there fast as I can.”

“Thank you, Steven.”

“Hold tight I’m on my way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jackie could have called up people from the cheer team at any point during the summer, but she didn’t. Just to illustrate she’s not hanging out with Hyde because she doesn’t have options, she chooses his company because she likes him.
> 
> The issue of this chapter is relevant for a good chunk of the upcoming chapters. And now that I’m going through this again, I don’t know if it feels like as big of a deal as I thought when I wrote it. I don’t want to have Jackie in extreme danger but the way my anxiety/brain works is an event might not be scary or dangerous in itself when it happens but the way my head worsens “what ifs/what could have happened” make things worse than they were. That’s sort of the way I wrote these chapters. So if you’re reading it and it seems like not that dramatic or worrisome that might be why.


	8. Lean on me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *TW/CW there is NO non con in this story but they do talk vaguely about Jackie could have been hurt. That’s going to come up several times in the story.
> 
> I'm double posting today so please go back and reach chapter 7 if you haven't already read that today.

Hyde broke so many speeding laws, he was only lucky he hadn’t gotten nabbed by the cops. His brain was short-circuiting between blank and a playlist of all the scenarios of what happened or could be happening. 

He barely got in a spot in front of the diner before he parked and ran inside. He probably looked crazy, his heart was pounding and he could barely breathe, and then he saw her.

She looked okay. Nervous but not terrified, not hurt either.

Every fiber of his being relaxed.

Jackie was sitting off to the side biting her nails and trying to make herself look small and unnoticeable.

That was not okay with him.

He approached her table not bothering with trying to be Zen, when she saw him relief washed over her face and she jumped up from the table and put her arms around his neck.

“Thank you, I’m so sorry to call you.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Despite himself, he hugged her back, completely relieved that she was okay. 

“Did you get dinner?” she asked.

“Didn’t work long enough to bother, I’ll get something at home.”

“Steven, let me buy you dinner it’s the least I can do, you drove all the way across town for me.”

“Did you eat?” he asked her.

“A little but I left early.”

“I could eat,” he admitted.

Jackie sat down on the side that was hidden from view and he took the seat she had been sitting in. He looked over the top of the menu to see her unguarded. Jackie was less nervous but she was holding the menu too tightly, her shoulders too tense.

They ordered their food. Jackie was twisting the straw wrappers into little strings. 

He was drumming his fingers on the table, nerves getting the better of him.

“So, you want to tell me what happened?” Hyde asked. “Or is it some new Cosmo thing where you go out with one guy and call another guy to pick you up on a date?”

“I-” she looked like she was going to cry.

He held up his hands, “Sorry not my business.”

“No,” she buried her face in her hands and the fear and anger combined with her relief flooded to the surface and she started to cry.

Almost instantly, an arm was around her as Steven moved to her side of the booth. She was glad her back was to the rest of the restaurant now.

He shushed her and pulled her close to him rubbing her back.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. 

“It’s okay but if you don’t tell me what happened, I’m going to have to go kick his ass and I don’t know what he looks like and that’s going to take some time to get it right.” He brushed her hair away from her face gently.

She laughed finally and wiped away her tears with the rough table napkins.

She took a deep breath, “He didn’t do anything to me, but he said he knew Michael.”

“Oh,” so it was Kelso after all. He should have suspected that she’d always have something for Kelso.

She was still talking he realized, “so he lied before when he asked like he didn’t know we had broken up. And- he- he asked how long? And I asked him how long what- and,” Jackie looked around to see if anyone could hear her. “He was asking how long until we did it.”

“He what?” Steven said a bit louder than he meant to and he was sure people were looking, but he was focused on Jackie and they couldn’t see them anyway.

“I don’t know if Michael told him I would do that or if he just was a total jerk on his own, but I paid for my food and kicked him in the shins. I left but then I remembered he picked me up and I didn’t have a way to get home.”

That settled it. Hyde was going to have to kill Grant Billings.

He was sure Eric had a yearbook somewhere he could find him easily enough. If not he’d ask Fez, he had his nose in everyone’s business, he’d know how to find him.

Her voice got small again. “No one answered at home so I called the Photo Hut. Again I’m really sorry.”

He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face to look at him. “Jackie, you call me whenever you need me okay. No questions. You got that?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck again.

“Thank you, Steven.”

He pulled her into a rare hug, “Anything for you Doll.”

Eventually, their food came out, but Steven hadn’t moved away from her. 

“This is nice,” Jackie said. 

“What diner food?”

“Yeah, the other restaurant was too fussy, all I got before was a salad and it wasn’t even that good. Plus the company has improved immensely.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t have a nice time?” He teased her back.

“Oh my God, he was so boring. He doesn’t even listen to music. Like it’s one thing for you to have mediocre taste in music but not to like anything.”

“Excuse you, my mediocre taste? You like The Osmonds.”

“So? They’re wonderful. Your music you can’t dance to.”

“Yes, you can. It’s just that- I can’t with you.” He pointed a finger at her, “The whole way home you’re going to listen to __ and you’re going to learn to like it.”

“There are only like three songs between here and home,” she snapped back playfully. 

“Then we’re going to drive around until you get it.”

“Fine, jeez. So demanding,” she flipped her hair over her shoulder, putting an end to their fake argument.

Steven paid, which Jackie argued against. “You already paid for one dinner tonight, besides you deserve to not be the one paying all the time.”

“I don’t pay for you very often.”

“You used to. Just don’t want you thinking I’m mooching off of you.”

“I don’t think that, and I offered to buy,” she reminded him.

“I got it, woman.”

“Fine,” Jackie relented, “but I’m calling dibs on paying for the movies the next time we go.”

“Yes, Dear.”

It was so sweet and simple. Just a joke to him, but it wasn’t to her.

Steven calling her dear and doll, made her heart do a little flip. It was too bad this wasn’t a date, she’d wished she’d been out with him instead.

It hit her like a truck all of a sudden.

Jackie realized she might have fallen for Steven J. Hyde.

The El Camino pulled up in front of Jackie’s house. “You okay being home alone if he knows where you live?”

“It’s fine. I don’t think anything really would have happened.”

“I can wait if you want. At least until your parents come home.” 

She didn’t know when her parents would come home. If they even bothered. She shared a lot with Steven, but she didn’t want him to know that.

“Thanks but I’m just going to go to bed. My dad should be home soon.”

He nodded, “Call if you get nervous before then.”

“I’m okay. I promise,” she kissed him on the cheek quickly. “Thanks for everything Steven.” 

He waited until she had locked herself in and he saw the light turn on in her bedroom before driving home.

Jackie went back down to the answering machine and played the messages back and erased them. She hated how small her voice sounded, and how scared she was. The truth was nothing probably would have happened, but Jackie wasn’t as foolish or naive as Steven thought she was. Girls rarely were that unaware of the bad things that could happen to them.

She watched some TV to calm her remaining nerves.

Not too much later the phone rang. She hoped it wasn’t her dad saying he wasn’t coming home again. She hated when he did that.

“Hello?”

“Just checking.”

She was sure he could feel her smiling even through the phone. It was nice to have someone actually care about her.

“I’m still okay,” she said into the receiver.

“Night.”

“Good night Steven.”

Her parents still hadn’t come home.

Getting into bed she realized she wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Her nerves getting the best of her made it impossible, but not about Grant.

She turned on the radio and just let the sound waft through with her thoughts.

Her date had been a disaster. That was easy to decide, but why had the first part felt so wrong? Old Jackie would have probably gone for him, but she’d spent too much time with Steven. He listened to her even when he pretended that he didn’t.

Then her thoughts drifted solely to Steven. He had come to her rescue again, but what she was feeling had been brewing for a while. He was the kind of person to defend anyone around him, so it wasn’t that much of a shock he’d come to get her when she needed him.

He was always there when she needed him. He always had been.

At some point over the last few months, he’d become her best friend. She didn’t know when it happened but it had. He’d actually listened to her talk about her feelings about the group and once or twice about Kelso. He’d only mildly complained but he also listened. He had comforted her.

He chose her side when everyone else hadn’t.

What she was feeling wasn’t gratitude either. Yes, she was glad he was her friend, but she’d been without friends before and been fine. Lonely yes, but she survived it and managed.

He made her want to be better, she knew she was shallow but she didn’t feel the need to show off with him.

They were themselves with each other and that was okay. She could be bitchy, he could be cranky, but they still respected and liked each other.

Steven Hyde on the surface was not the kind of guy you should feel safe around.

He was gruff, bought and smoked pot, drank.

But Jackie saw past that, she knew he was also honest and sweet, and he’d taken care of her so many times when she’d been upset in the past, practically the whole time she’d known him. Jackie felt completely safe with him.

Something she couldn’t say about Michael or Grant. Maybe she knew deep down that Grant hadn’t been a good guy.

She tossed and turned most of the night. Steven had told her once before he didn’t like her and would never see her that way, but that didn’t mean she could dismiss her feelings.

It was fine. She could make herself be okay with not dating him, but now that he was in her life she couldn’t lose him.


	9. American Girl

Steven was working the next afternoon, Jackie came by to visit him at work. She’d only come by a couple of times before. “Hey it’s Loud Girl,” he turned from Hyde to Jackie, “Hi Loud Girl.”

“Hi, Leo. Can I hang out here?”

“I don’t know man I gotta check with my boss.”

Steven was leaning against the counter, looking exasperated.

“Leo you are the boss,” Steven told him.

“I am? Cool,” then he walked away.

Steven shook his head, he felt more like the boss most days. “He’s not going to notice you unless you’re on fire and then only if you have a joint.”

Jackie shrugged, “I brought snacks.” She handed Steven a paper bag from a large purse.

“Brownies?” He arched an eyebrow with an amused smirk.

“Don’t get excited they’re normal ones. And before you ask I did not make them so they should be safe enough to eat. Chocolate Peanut butter.”

“Thanks, but why?” Sure she visited him at work once in a while but she didn’t bring stuff.

“I still feel bad calling you last night when I hadn’t even wanted to go out with that guy anyway.”

He bristled a little, it was probably because her parents or his friends made her feel like a burden, but he wouldn’t let her feel that way.

“I told you and I’ll tell you until you get it through your thick head, if you need anything you can call me.”

“I heard you last night, but then you also paid for dinner. Just take your brownies,” she snapped back without any real hostility.

“Brownies?” Leo asked coming back into view. 

“Sorry they aren’t that kind,” Jackie said again, “but I do have some for you.” She pulled another bag out of her purse.

“I like Loud Girl. Can I take my break?”

“Sure, man.” Hyde shook his head. “You won the boss over, now what?”

“I thought if you wouldn’t mind I could just hang out here. My parents are gone again and it’s too quiet at home.”

“What happened to all your cheerleader friends?”

“If I’m in the way or bothering you I can go,” she said easily.

“I didn’t say that, I was just asking. This isn’t much better than” he was about to say the basement but even mentioning it was still a sore spot with Jackie and he didn’t blame her, “if you were home. At least you have a TV there.”

Jackie admitted, “They’re a school necessity, not really an ‘I’d like to spend my time with’ group. I can go to the pool with them because I don’t have to talk to them.” 

“I get it. Well, there’s a chair, and… that’s about all there is.”

“That’s all I need.”

She took a book out of her bag and folded her legs in the chair reading for a long time as people pulled up to the window and dropped off vacation photos.

As the drop-off line eased up, Steven finally noticed Jackie’s book was the one he’d bought her at the bookstore.

He liked the sight of her sitting around waiting for him, but something about it was bothering him. She looked tired, so why was she here instead of at home?

When she yawned for the third time he called her.

“Hey, Jackie?”

“Hmm?”

“Where are your parents?” He’d never asked before, there was some kind of unspoken rule about it, but Jackie looked exhausted.

Her face blanched.

Instantly he knew he was right.

“Jackie?” He asked with that tone that made her feel like a little kid getting caught doing something wrong.

Jackie didn’t look at him when she answered. “Mom’s somewhere in Mexico I guess with one of her boyfriends.”

“And your dad?”

“Chicago.”

“How long?”

“A few days for dad, I don’t know about mom. Probably until one of them gets bored.”

“Jackie look at me.”

She knew he wouldn’t let her alone until she did, but damn him he’d know if she was lying. His stupid, perfect, lie-detector eyes.

Jackie met his eyes.

“Did your dad come home last night?”

There was no point in dancing around it. “No, his assistant told me this morning when I called the office.”

Hyde didn’t want to piss or scare her off so he spoke carefully almost Zen-like.

“What do you do when they aren’t home?”

“I- I used to call Donna and we’d hang out or sleepover.”

He had wondered how her parents were so cool with Jackie sleeping at someone else’s house so much when she and Donna weren’t fighting.

“Why don’t you call her?”

Her eyes fired up in defense, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know you didn’t, I’m just suggesting. Forget it.”

“Okay,” Jackie said defensively.

“Are you okay home alone?”

“I always have been.”

That he understood, but that didn’t mean it was okay. Hers was the kind of house you robbed when there were no cars in the driveway.

“They do that a lot?” He knew her dad worked a ton and she didn’t get along with her mom, but she hadn’t told him they were gone.

Jackie didn’t know why she hadn’t told him before, probably because he already knew every other detail of her embarrassment and misery. He didn’t need something else to pity her for.

“Yeah,” she said. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I can take care of myself,” was all she was going to say, but she added, “it’s fine. There’s a cook and a maid. I hardly notice they aren’t there.”

Hyde watched the Princess mask go up. It was subtle, her own kind of Zen. She tilted her chin up and didn’t look him in the eyes. He could tell Jackie was looking near his head slightly away, probably focused on something behind him, and her voice was just a little higher pitched than normal. How had he never seen it in the years they’d known each other?

“My mom did that too, minus the maid and the cook.”

He knew it was the worst feeling, aside from being hit, to come home as a kid and not know where your parents were. Especially being alone at night when there were noises and you were scared.

“Parent’s suck don’t they,” Jackie said. She already knew his mom had left him often until she finally committed to it.

“That they do.”

He wondered how long they’d done that, was it recent? Mistakenly thinking their sixteen-year-old was mature enough to stay home alone all the time. Or had they always done that?

He knew if Jackie wanted to talk about it she wouldn’t want to do it in the middle of the Photo Hut.

For the rest of the shift, he asked her questions about 1984 and discussed his anti-establishment theories, and complained about the record she bought for him.

That annoyed her.

“It’s fabulous you just have revolting taste,” she snapped, “bring it over and I’ll explain every song so you’ll get it.”

He didn’t hate Fleetwood Mac, he just wanted to get a rise out of her. 

When his shift was over he drove her home, he asked her, “Want to watch a movie or something since your parents are gone?”

Her face lit up, “Sure. You can pick.”

She let him in and went to the kitchen. He’d been inside her house enough times now to know how to set up the VCR to watch a movie and looked through her dad’s collection of tapes.

She came back with popcorn and pops. “I’ve got ice-cream too if you want.”

“Maybe later.”

“I feel like a pizza, what do you want on it?”

“You know what I get by now,” he said still flipping through the tapes. 

She ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza and sat on the couch waiting for Steven to finally decide on a movie. It was harder than it looked picking one both of them would like.

The doorbell rang and Jackie went to pay for it.

“Thank you,” she gave the driver a tip and he went off. She put the pizza on the coffee table and they settled in for the movie.

She could do this, just hang out with her friend. So what if she liked him more, that was her problem to deal with.

Steven had been a fantastic friend to her and she was going to keep him around for as long as he’d put up with her.

“So what did you finally pick?”

“Young Frankenstein,” he said.

“Ugh again?”

Hyde gestured at the cabinet with the tapes, “Your dad has fifty westerns and five other movies.”

“That’s true, I’ll have to get some that I actually like.”

“You like this,” Hyde told her.

“Says who?”

“Says you mouth the words to it every time we’ve watched it.”

“Whatever,” she refused to admit she liked the movie on the principle of not wanting to agree with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving away from the drama/angst for a minute- please be advised the events of chapter 7/8 are going to be relevant for the rest of the story and it's brought up many times throughout the rest of the story, so the tw/cw is on for the rest of the story. Not in any great detail everything is vaguely referenced. 
> 
> I changed the title because working on 2 stories that the titles start with “You” was confusing me every time I tried to add a chapter or respond to a comment. It just happened that “You Knew” was furthest along of my WIP when I decided to post it but I keep checking if I put the chapter it in the right story. 
> 
> I looked up VCR’s in the 70s and they were around but oh my god! The average price was between 1000-1400. The site said the price dropped fast but they were still around 500 in 76.


	10. I Will Survive

Bright light filtered into the room waking Jackie on the couch. It took her a moment to remember the night before and why she wasn’t in her bed. 

Forcing herself to sit up she noticed three things.

First, the Television was still on. Second, their pizza which they’d almost finished was still in the middle of the table. And Third, Steven was asleep on the loveseat, barely fitting with his legs draped over the arm.

Jackie knew Steven, he’d stayed on purpose. Damn him, he even put a blanket on her after she fell asleep. She was slightly annoyed that he stayed, she knew he didn’t want her to be home alone if he could help it. But it was nice to have someone worry about her for a change.

He was so cute when he slept, she thought. He didn’t look mad at the world and seemed at peace. She was tempted to hide his sunglasses so he couldn’t find them.

Resisting the temptation, she just stared at him.

The other temptation of running her hands through his curls was harder to ignore.

Practically since the day she’d met him she wanted to mess with those curls, just to see if they were soft or not.

She had to do something about this crush, it was getting out of hand.

And then she realized the problem, he’d stayed out all night. Red would flip.

As much as she hated to do it, she shook him awake.

“Steven,” she said softly.

He groaned in his sleep.

“Steven you have to wake up.”

“Go away,” he said still half asleep.

She nudged his shoulder and said sharply, “Steven!”

He grudgingly started to wake up.

“You have to get out of here, you fell asleep, the Forman’s are going to kill you.”

He sat up getting his bearings.

“Are you listening to me?” Jackie demanded.

“Yeah, you talk a lot for first thing in the morning,” Steven managed.

She gave him a playful shove.

“You can probably sneak back in without getting in trouble if you park down the block and walk.”

“Look at you being a delinquent,” Steven smirked at her, “you’re coming along nicely.”

“I’m serious, I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Alright, I’m going. They probably didn’t even notice. I’ll see ya later.”

“Just in case, I won’t make any plans with you until I know you’re not under house arrest.”

She waited in the doorway until he drove off.

He was totally going to get in trouble.

Steven called her later from work.

“So was I right?” Jackie asked him. She was laying on her bed flipping through a magazine. 

“Yes, and no. They knew I was gone already because stupid Forman smashed a stupid Star Wars model on the floor at midnight.”

“And?” she pushed.

“Red didn’t really care,” he said, “I told him I was at Leo’s and forgot to call. It’s no big deal.”

“Uh-huh. And you’re calling me from work because?”

“Don’t need other ears listening to this conversation.”

“Right,” she didn’t believe him, but she let it go.

“I probably can’t hang out tonight, but if you want you can come over later and stay in my room. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Steven,” she paused, “why would I sleep in your room?”

“So you’re not in that house alone,” he said simply.

He was killing her. Jackie swore she could feel her heart surge. So much for keeping her crush under control.

“Jackie?”

She sat up to focus.

“Steven, that’s really sweet. And I do appreciate it, but I can’t kick you out of your room.”

“You wouldn’t be kicking me out, I’m offering.”

“I know, I’m still saying I appreciate it but no.”

“Or I can sneak out later and sleep on your couch. I just have to get back before Red gets up. You shouldn’t have to stay in an empty house.”

Her heart was breaking, she wanted to say yes but she couldn’t accept.

Jackie fought to keep from choking up, “I promise I’ll be okay.”

Steven knew he couldn’t force her, no matter how much he wanted to. “Open invitation, if you don’t feel okay come over. Ever, I mean it.”

“Okay, I will keep it in mind.”

He didn’t know what he was doing to her.


	11. Is It Too Late to Apologize?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double Post today for ch's 10 & 11.

Days later the phone rang at Jackie’s house.

“Hello,” she answered expecting Steven to call and set up something with her since he was the only one who bothered to call her anymore. She hadn’t seen a lot of him that week.

“Hey, Jackie. Don’t hang up.”

She nearly dropped the phone.

“Donna?” Jackie asked suspiciously, “what do you want?”

She spoke quickly to get it all out before Jackie hung up on her, “I’m sorry, I really am. I realize we all sucked and we picked Kelso over you which wasn’t fair or right.” 

“Where is this coming from Donna? It’s been how long?”

“I know, it’s just. Kelso’s been acting like a real jerk lately and I never really saw what he was doing before. I wasn’t a good friend to you.”

Old Jackie would have said it’s okay and pretended everything was normal.

“No, you weren’t, but I can try to forgive you if you mean it.”

“Really? Would you like to come hang out in the basement? The others want to apologize too.”

“I don’t-”

Donna interrupted her, “Kelso’s at his cousin’s in Virginia for a while.”

“Oh, well okay. But my dad has the car, I’ll need a ride if someone could pick me up.”

She could have walked but she didn’t want to. If they wanted to be friends she wasn’t going to be putting in all of the effort this time.

“Yeah, one of us will come get you.”

Jackie was sitting in the yard when the El Camino drove up. She was far from disappointed that it wasn’t Eric or Donna picking her up.

“Heard you need a ride?”

“My knight in black and chrome armor,” she said as she slid inside.

“Feel more like your chauffeur.”

“Nah, you’d need a hat and that would just mess up your hair.”

He turned on the cassette player, Jim Morrison’s voice filled the car. 

“EWWWW!”

“Shut it, you’ll like it if you listen to it.”

She protested more than necessary, they both knew it was more of a game now.

“What did you do to your hand?”

Hyde lifted his hand off the steering wheel, “Scraped it on something.”

“Looks like it hurts,” Jackie said trying to figure out if it was bad or not. She was sure Mrs. Forman would pester him to keep it clean though.

“It’s alright.”

Something felt funny, maybe that was just her nervousness at seeing everyone again. “Did you have anything to do with Donna inviting me over and apologizing?”

“No.” Jackie could see he was tense. She wondered if it was because of her.

“So, do I keep quiet that you’ve been hanging out with me?” Jackie asked.

“No, they all know,” he told her.

“Did you tell them?”

“Yeah.” Hyde took a deep breath to hold onto his Zen, “I lied the other day, Red had my ass when I didn’t come home all night and I had to explain where I was. Eric was listening at the door.”

“Okay,” she’d revel in the fact that she was right later, “And if Eric knows he obviously told Donna.”

“He did.”

He could have lied, but he’d told them about her. That was something.

Jackie relaxed a little into the seat, “I don’t hate this song.”

“I told you.”

Jackie nodded, “But when we’re done with this, I’m going to play Abba until you realize how amazing they are.”

“That is never going to happen.”

“Oh, we’ll see my friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As one of my lovely readers commented they were ready for the bubble to pop- well, The bubble is going to pop. Yesterday's post starts my favorite section of the story. I'm dying to post 2 of the upcoming chapters but you've got to wait. Not everything goes in order or is explained right off the bat so I hope you like them.


	12. I Can See Clearly Now

The basement door had never looked so intimidating before. Jackie steadied herself before she went inside. If this went well, she might have her friends back. If it didn’t she might lose Steven. She could live without the others, she never really had them. But she needed Steven in her life.

Hyde put a hand on her back for silent comfort. She felt braver, he was always in her corner.

She opened the door.

The group was watching Flipper. 

“Hello everyone,” Jackie was reserved and standoffish, sitting in the chair closest to the outside door.

“Jackie,” Fez said excitedly, looking like a lost puppy. 

Hyde took his usual seat to watch this play out.

As long as Jackie didn’t write him off with the rest of them, he could take whatever outcome of what was about to happen.

Eric turned off the TV. That was a rarity in the basement.

“Look Jackie we’re sorry, we- we should have told you and you were right. We didn’t treat you like a friend.” Donna began for all of them.

“Jackie we were awful to you,” Eric said, “At least I was and I’m sorry.”

“I’m really sorry Jackie,” Fez said. He sounded like a little boy.

“I shouldn’t forgive you,” Jackie began, “but I’m feeling extremely generous today, so I’ll forgive you.”

Hyde wanted to laugh at her, she hadn’t acted like this all summer. She put on her spoiled princess mask again so she was either uncomfortable or seriously angry.

He watched her try to gain power in the room. It was fascinating to watch all the tells he’d discovered about her.

“Yey,” Fez cheered and jumped up for a hug but Jackie held him back.

“But why now?” Jackie asked suspiciously.

Hyde smirked behind his hands. Damn, she was smart, he had to admire that. Maybe it was all the time she’d spent with him that made her suspicious.

“What do you mean?” Eric asked her.

“I mean Van Stock was right after school let out. It’s been a few months. The three of you haven’t had anything to do with me in all that time. You didn’t call or come over, send a letter,” the hurt in her voice hidden behind her genuine anger. “So I want to know why today of all days did you decide you were not good friends and want to apologize?”

“Can’t you just accept that we’re sorry?” Fez asked.

“Not until I find out why, and the stalling is making me really suspicious.”

They all looked at Hyde.

Jackie arched her eyebrows, she was feeling a lot like her bitchy self now. “Did you tell them to apologize Steven?”

“No.”

“He didn’t, it’s just…” Eric struggled to explain, “Hyde we gotta tell her.”

“Damn fine.” He jerked his head to the side which Jackie had learned was him rolling his eyes.

This would all fall back on him now. He told them not to mention it and now he’d be screwed.

“Steven, can you come up here for a minute?” Mrs. Forman called.

“Coming.” He turned to them, “Wait until I get back.” 

They watched him walk up the stairs.

“What is it? Tell me now or I’m leaving,” Jackie demanded.

Their eyes all shifted to the stairs, debating on who to listen to.

“Please listen to all of it first before you get upset okay?” Eric asked.

Jackie nodded grudgingly.

Donna began, “Kelso didn’t appreciate you completely cutting him off and he’s been seeing a lot of girls, so he has no right to talk about anything you do or do not do.” 

“And what exactly have I done?”

Fez looked at Jackie sadly, “Someone saw you and Hyde together and told Kelso you were on a date.”

“And that his car was at your house all night,” Eric said.

“Which if you are dating that’s none of his business anyway,” Donna added.

“And?” Jackie prodded.

“And he’s Kelso, they got into it,” Eric said.

“Kelso got jealous and possessive and said you were his, which Hyde didn’t like,” Fez added. “And there was a lot of not really nice stuff said. But then Hyde asked him about Grant Billings.”

“We swear we didn’t know about any of this until after the fight. I mean, we knew he was dating but the rest we didn’t,” Donna said. She looked nervous.

Why did she look nervous? The boys fought all of the time, especially Michael and Steven.

Jackie wasn’t sure she wanted to know, “What’s the rest?”

They’d all agreed that Donna would be the one to tell her this part, being the only girl. 

“What’s the rest, Donna?”

“Let’s go outside.”

“No, they obviously know so tell me,” Jackie demanded shrilly. 

Hyde would kill her. “Kelso got real weird,” Donna started, “like almost calm and he laughed about it and admitted he’s been telling people you’ll give it up to anyone who buys you a nice dinner and some flowers.”

Jackie felt sick, her head was spinning. The room was going hot and cold.

It didn’t matter that they’d broken up, she had loved Michael at one point. She thought he’d at least somewhat cared about her. Obviously, she was wrong. You don’t do that to someone you care about no matter how hurt you are.

But the thoughts of her ex combined with that horrible date and what could have happened and everyone in school talking about her flooded her mind, and she just wanted to crawl into bed and cry. She wanted Steven.

She really was going to be sick.

Vaguely she heard a crash and her name as she bolted to the small bathroom she didn’t like because she wasn’t sure she could make it upstairs. The door slammed and her breakfast was in the toilet.

Her hearing felt fuzzy like she was underwater, and everything was off.

She tried to breathe but her chest was so tight.

“Jackie” Steven shouted from the other side of the door.

She hadn’t had time to lock the door.

“Don’t come in here.”

“What the hell did you tell her?” There was a mumble from the rest of them, “Jackie if you don’t come out one of us is going to come in.”

“Hyde,” Donna was outside the door now too, “just give her a few minutes okay?”

“Jackie, do you want one of us to come in?” he asked.

She didn’t need her knight right now, she needed to get herself together on her own. But she wanted him to know she was okay. Or okay-ish.

“Send in Eric.”

“Forman,” he said, Jackie could almost see the confusion on his face through the door, “why?”

“Do you think he’d cry?”

Hyde chuckled, “he might pass out.”

Jackie heard Eric’s voice, “Does she really want me to uh?”

“No, but maybe you should if you’re going to be so stupid,” Hyde told him.

When she felt like she wasn’t going to throw up again, Jackie asked, “Can someone give me my bag?”

“I got it,” Donna said, “do you want me to come in?”

“No, I just need a minute.”

“I’m just going to open the door enough to push it in.”

“Thank you.”

She washed her face and pulled out a toothbrush from her purse, and brushed her teeth. She felt embarrassed but everyone was waiting on her so she had no choice but to come out.

Steven was leaning against his bedroom door waiting for her his fingers tapping on the frame.

“You okay?” He asked immediately.

“I don’t think I’m going to be sick again.”

He nodded knowing she meant no I’m not.

There was a plate of crackers and ginger ale on the table near where she’d been sitting.

“Is that all of it?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah,” said Hyde.

“No,” Donna said. Hyde glared at her.

“Do you want Kelso to show up and blindside her with it later?” Eric asked.

Hyde continued glaring and his jaw clenched tighter.

Donna continued, “After,- what we said happened they got into a real fight. Kelso said he got mugged and his parents sent him out of town. We don’t know for how long.”

“What did you get his eye again?” Jackie asked sarcastically.

Eric rolled his eyes, “Uh, yeah, both of them.”

Fez continued, “And his nose and-”

“Okay enough,” Hyde snapped.

Jackie wanted to know the rest of it, but Steven was shifting and agitated. “Yeah, I think that’s all I can take for one day.”

“Charlie’s Angels is on,” Fez offered.

Without a word Hyde, turned the TV back on. Jackie sipped at the ginger ale hoping it would calm her stomach.

After they watched a show Jackie finally spoke.

“Donna, what are people saying about me?”

“Well, after you kicked the crap out of Grant nothing.”

“There were some people from school working and eating there, saw the whole kick-off,” Fez told her. 

“So something good did come out of that stupid date,” she tried to make it sound like a joke but this could be serious for her.


	13. You’re My Best Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double Post today

A few episodes later Hyde stood up, “You ready to go?”

Jackie nodded.

“I’ll drive you home.” For an abundance of reasons, he didn’t want to take her anywhere, but he was selfish in wanting to be alone with her even for a few minutes. Yet, terrified of what consequences his fight with Kelso would have.

He knew she’d want to talk about it, he’d have to no matter how much he didn’t want to.

Once they were safe inside the El Camino Jackie started asking questions, just not the ones he had expected.

Jackie took his hand off the steering wheel and looked at his knuckles. The pale skin still red, tight and shiny from where it had been scraped off in the fight.

Gently she rubbed her thumb over the injury.

She looked at him with her large doll eyes, the worry clearly written on her face. He loved her eyes, they were so expressive they could tell you a million stories if you knew how to read them.

“Steven, are you in trouble?”

“What?” He expected her to yell at him, or to be frightened of him.

“Because of Michael, are you in trouble?”

“No, he did actually cover for me, but Donna said they would lie for me and say nothing happened.”

“That’s good at least. Why did you do it?” She had to know.

“Because.”

“Steven,” agitation grew in her voice, “because is not a reason. Why did you do it?”

“Because- he hurt you, do you know what could have happened if you got taken out by the wrong kind of guy he’d talked to?”

Jackie nodded, “Why do you think I was so scared when I called you? Is that all?”

“All?” He half chuckled bitterly. “Are you kidding is that all? Do you know how freaked I was to hear you crying on the store’s phone? I didn’t know what happened, if he’d hurt you, was someone else going to hurt you? All the way there thinking maybe you didn’t get into the diner safely. Every red light taking it longer for me to get to you.”

There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t betray what she felt.

“You mad at me?” He finally asked.

Jackie’s face softened, “Of course not.”

With that, Steven started the car and drove her towards home.

Jackie leaned her head onto his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his, taking comfort at feeling him safe next to her.

His hand came to rest on her knee.

At some point, these simple touches had developed. She hadn’t noticed until now how easily they’d fallen into it.

Sometime in the last few months, she’d started kissing him on the cheek, he’d brush her hair away from her face, she’d grab for his hand, he wouldn’t let go.

She reached her hand down to hold onto his.

He didn’t shrug her off, he only squeezed her knee.

Jackie felt nearly sick. Maybe this was a bad moment, but not knowing would eat her alive.

She was a bad bitch right? She was scared as hell but she took what little confidence she could from that idea.

Her heart was in her throat as she said the words.

“Steven, what are we doing?”

He knew what she was asking.

Part of him wanted to play it dumb, but he knew. How could he not? They’d stumbled past not being friends without either of them realizing it was happening until it was too late. At least for him.

But if Jackie was asking maybe he had a shot.

He wasn’t a liar, somehow she’d crawled inside and he didn’t care. He’d kill for her, but he couldn’t say all of that. He sighed, “I don’t know.”

Jackie should have hated that answer but she didn’t exactly know herself.

“I never said this to you but you really are my best friend,” she said.

Eric was his best friend, but somehow so was Jackie. Somethings just came out easier around her than Eric. Sometimes she just got him without him saying a word.

“Me too,” He smiled softly not taking his eyes off the road.

Jackie braced herself for whatever consequences would happen in the next minute. Her heart was slamming into her ribs. “But, we’re not just friends anymore are we?”

Hyde was desperate, he could say they were only friends, but that wasn’t true. They were well past just being friends no matter what he told himself. But was he ready for a relationship with Jackie? Would she really want to be with him?

Jackie mattered. She more than mattered. He didn't want her to but here she was and he couldn't give her up.

Hyde took the biggest risk of his life.

“No, guess we’re not.”

“Okay,” Jackie said simply.

“Okay?”

“I don’t know what to do about that.”

“Really?”

He pulled up in front of her house, “I might have a couple of ideas.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “But today has been a lot.”

He understood, she needed a break. He didn’t let himself hope that she wouldn’t change her mind by tomorrow. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jackie confirmed.

She waved at him from her bedroom window, only then did he leave the driveway.

They hadn’t discussed anything and neither had pushed for anything other than what they were. Whatever that was.

Eric was still in the basement when Hyde got home.

“So, you and Jackie huh?”

“What me and Jackie?”

Eric just looked at him, “Hyde, seriously.”

He didn’t speak.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Eric continued, “so secret friends for months. You get reamed out by Red because you stayed over because her parents weren’t home for days, the thing with that guy, then the door.”

“What door?”

“Hyde,” Eric spoke slowly like he was talking to a child (or an oblivious idiot as he was in this case) “when Jackie was locked in the bathroom you were over there freaking out.”

“I was not freaking out.”

“Whatever, but dude, you like her,” Eric told him.

“You’re such a girl Forman.”

“That’s not a no.”

“Shut it,” Hyde snapped at him. "We're not together." 

“Okay. Like if you were, it’s cool.”

“Thanks for permission,” he said sarcastically. 

“Not permission, just saying we wouldn’t make it worse for you.”

Hyde didn’t say anything.

“I know we all kind of hated her when she first started coming to the basement, but we’ll do better this time.”

He knew Jackie only wanted to feel included, she never would have left if she felt like any of them had supported her. “I’m sure she’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was trying to post every day, and I'm almost caught up with the section I wanted to get posted. I'm going to get through chapter 17 (17 might need to be split in half because it's massive) and then I'll probably go back to every couple of days because I feel like I'm getting obsessive over writing because I can't go anywhere.


	14. Let It Be

Jackie called Donna that night and invited her over. She needed information. 

Donna showed up with a bag of snacks and girly products Jackie was surprised she even owned.

“I was going to call you but I thought you might try to sleep it off after you got sick.”

“It’s okay, I tried but honestly Donna I need to know. What happened with Steven and Michael?”

Donna just looked at her for a moment.

“What?”

“Jackie, are you and Hyde together?”

She bit her lip, what could she say? “I’m not sure, we weren’t but then today. Maybe. I don’t think so. Does it matter?

“No, it would just explain it a little more. Okay so I told you we didn’t understand the fight until after but Hyde brought up that guy, Kelso said- what he said, and Hyde straight-up snapped.”

“Snapped how?”

Donna had prepared herself for this conversation, but that didn’t make any of it easier. “Hyde beat the shit out of him. Kelso’s tall and you’d think with all his brother’s that he’d know how to defend himself but-”

Jackie snapped her fingers in her face, “Donna.”

“Sorry, they were really going at it, it took Red and me and finally Kitty spraying them with the hose to get him off of Kelso.”

“How bad?”

“Two black eyes, maybe a broken nose and cheekbone, he said a couple of cracked ribs when I called to see if he was alright.”

That stung Jackie. Yes, Michael was physically hurt but Donna still hadn’t checked on her in months. It just probed how deep her loyalty was.

“When did this happen? I didn’t know.”

“A few days ago. We wanted to let Hyde cool off before we talked to you.”

“Steven said Red had him doing extra chores so she couldn’t come by much this week.”

Donna nodded, “His hand was pretty bruised and he didn’t want to tell you what he did. But he was a wreck when it happened.” 

“Go on,” Jackie said. She hadn’t expected this much and they still weren’t done.

“We dealt with Hyde and once he explained what the deal with that guy was, we got it. Not that we were cool with what Kelso said about you, but the chance that something really could have happened was just really scary.”

“Donna, tell me the truth is Steven in trouble?”

She didn’t speak for a moment, “I think he’s really lucky your dad is Jack Burkhart.”

“What’s my dad got to do with it?”

“So Kelso did not look good, Hyde messed him up. He probably could have gotten arrested,” Donna said.

“Okay, and?”

“We’ve all been friends forever, but Eric will always pick Hyde over Kelso.”

Jackie knew that was true somehow. They’d never put that to the test but Eric was loyal to Steven in a way he wasn’t to Michael.

“When Kitty got Kelso cleaned up Eric told him if he said anything about Hyde he’d go to your dad and tell him what he was doing. He said your dad knows people and could make his life difficult.”

“Eric, Eric Forman?” Jackie asked, “Your scrawny wimpy boyfriend?”

“That’s him.”

“I’m impressed. And shocked. Way more shocked than impressed.”

“Fez also has a real soft spot for you and it was easy to get him on our side, I told Kelso if he said anything we’d lie that it wasn’t Hyde. I mean you’d have thought he’d have a broken hand or something but he had bruises on his knuckles.”

That was only a small comfort to Jackie. Her dad might handle it if she begged him to. The only bonus was that her dad hated Michael and always had. Then it hit her.

“Oh my god, what about the Forman’s? Are they furious with him? Steven can’t get kicked out because of me.”

“Kitty is way more upset because he was fighting but she cooled off when we told her why. Red, kind of grounded him but it’s so half-assed he didn’t even try. So he didn’t completely lie about not being able to see you.”

“Like what?”

“He has to clean the garage and basement and attic out, mow the lawn, stupid stuff.”

“But the garage and basement are pretty much clean aren’t they?” Jackie asked, “I mean they usually are aren’t they?” 

“Exactly. And I told Kitty it was because he was defending your honor.”

Jackie blushed. A year ago that would have sent her over the moon but now it just seemed too much. It was all sappy and romantic in books, but in the real world, there were laws and charges.

“She isn’t happy, but she’s relaxing about it,” Donna admitted. “Jackie, what’s your side of the Grant thing?”

She told her every last detail. “Donna I was really scared.”

“I’m sure you were. And I know it was my fault we weren’t talking but you could have called me too. I would have come to get you.”

Jackie hugged Donna. “I have missed you guys.”

“I’m sorry Jackie, I do mean it.”

“Donna, why didn’t you call me? Just once?”

“This isn’t exactly nice.”

“I can handle it. Tell me the truth,” Jackie knew it wouldn’t be nice, but she was tired of the lies.

“At first I didn’t want to deal with you whining over Kelso.”

“Okay, I get that,” Jackie could admit that she’d done that in the past. 

“Then, I’m sorry, but sometimes you’re a lot, and Hyde said I should apologize and I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong. I realize now I did, but then I didn’t want to admit it.”

Steven hadn’t told her he’d tried to get Donna to apologize, that hurt. He had to tell her “friend” she should apologize, and she didn’t. 

“Once I realized I was wrong it had been a long time and it got harder to call you and admit that.”

Jackie waited.

“So I want to tell you I’m sorry for all of it. I was a horrible friend to you, I should have told you the minute I found out about Kelso cheating, and I’m sorry we did side with him over you. And I’m sorry for being a bitch and not being adult enough to admit that I was wrong. I hope we can still be friends, or start being friends because I have missed you.”

Jackie wanted to cry now, she hurt and felt better all at once. It would never be the same, but maybe they could be friends again.

“I’m still hurt that you didn’t tell me, but more than that I wanted you to try and tell me you were sorry. I was completely alone.”

Jackie could either accept the apology or bid the basement goodbye. She didn’t hate any of them, and they seemed like they were sorry.

If it came down to it she could walk away and be fine,and she didn’t want to fight. She was so tired of fighting. And frankly she wasn’t sure if they were worth it to fight.

But what was she going to do? She couldn’t ask Steven to keep avoiding his home. She couldn’t very well go see him only when everyone was gone or walk in and ignore everyone.

These were Steven’s people. No matter how much he denied it he needed the basement gang.

She could make this small sacrifice for him.

What Steven called her mask went back up.

She wrapped her arms around Donna’s neck.

“I’m not going to get over everything right away, but I forgive you. You were as big a bitch as I am but I missed you too.”

Donna hugged her back. It would take time to rebuild a friendship but she was willing to try.

After a moment of silence, a sly smile crept across Donna’s face. “You must not have missed us too badly if you’re spending all of your time with Hyde.”

Jackie turned bright pink, “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like?”

“We were hanging out as friends. Nothing big, going to the movies, getting some food. Sometimes we watched TV here. We went to the mall one time. Once in a while, I hang out while he’s working.”

“How long Jackie? Like I’ve known something was up for a while but how long exactly?”

“Always,” she said simply. “Steven found me at the Hub a couple of days after I left the basement and apologized. Then we started hanging out.”

“Wow.” The entire summer and she hadn’t noticed that he’d even been gone that much. “I knew there was something going on, I just wouldn’t have guessed it was you.”

“What do you mean?”

Donna couldn’t place it exactly, she hadn’t seen Hyde that much now that she thought about it. “He’s just been way more mellow lately, well, not last week but other than that. Hyde’s been-happy.”

“Donna, I really like him.”

Donna studied Jackie. In the time they’d spent apart she was so different, she wasn’t as screechy, sure but there was something calmer about her. “Why?”

A warm smiled crept over Jackie’s face, “Because he’s Steven, even when he didn’t like me he tried to make me feel better when I was upset. He apologized when he knew he hurt me. He’s funny and nice, and he’s really smart. Like he gave me this book and then we talked about it. And he puts up with me, but doesn’t seem to mind it that much.”

The last part stung Donna, she remembered she just told Jackie she was a lot to deal with.

“Ok. Why did you like Kelso?”

Her smile fell and the color faded from her cheeks, “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Please just- humor me. I want to see something.”

Why did she? “He was cute and popular enough, and I guess part of it was he usually did what I told him.”

“Anything else?”

“I- I think I loved him but I don’t know why. And it’s not even what he did, I just don’t know why. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No, I think maybe you got a hell of a lot smarter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Jackie has forgiven the group BUT she’s going to be wary. Forgive not Forget. She wants people to like her, but she’s also not going to forget and there are things they say and do that hurt her.
> 
> I know some of you are ready for a Donna/Jackie showdown so I hope you’re not too disappointed. (We’re not done with what happened over this week yet). My original plan was not as angsty nor did it have much of the basement crew up to this point. So I never planned on J/D having a huge blow out. With the edits I made to the story so far I think Jackie would just be tired of it, so she’ll try to be friends with everyone but also isn’t going to be too dependent on their friendships.


	15. Ramble On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double post again 14/15

In the morning, the boys sat down to cereal.

“Donna spent the night at Jackie’s so I guess they are friends again,” Eric said.

“That’s good,” Hyde said.

That was not completely good.

Donna would blab, Hyde knew she would, but still, Jackie had only been worried about him getting in trouble so maybe there was a chance. He didn’t want to hope too much in case she disappointed him.

Eric broke him out of his thoughts, “She’s not like Kristie or the other girls you’ve dated, you know.”

“What?”

Eric repeated himself. “Jackie isn’t like that, if she’s in she’s in.”

“Whatever.”

Eric smiled to himself, his best friend was an idiot. This would be fun.

Donna stumbled through the basement with Jackie later that afternoon both looking exhausted.

“Did you two get any sleep?”

“We had a lot to catch up on,” Jackie said.

They sat down in the open spots on the couch. The TV was on again, and everyone else seemed content to just watch a show.

Jackie could just sit and watch with them, but she had missed so much and she was vibrating with energy. “So what did you guys do all summer without me? Mall, Movies, interesting outings?”

“We uh, played all the board games,” Eric said.

“Yeah it’s been pretty boring,” Fez said not looking away from Farrah Fawcett.

She looked at everyone in the basement, she wanted to believe them, but she was insecure. She could admit it to herself. She imagined them doing all sorts of things without her. “Are you guys lying to me?”

“No,” Steven said quickly. He knew she’d be unsure about the rest of them for a while. “They sat here, they sat there, they sat at the hub.”

“Hey, we once went to the water tower,” Eric said offended.

Hyde shook his head, “Yeah, once we went to the water tower and sat there.”

Now that it was a commercial, Fez was willing to divert his attention. “Did you two do anything?” He asked.

“Not much,” Jackie said.

“Movies, bowling, concert up in Madison, drive-in,” Hyde casually said.

“Went to the record store, drove out to the lake,” Jackie added. 

The others looked between the two of them.

“What?” They both asked.

Eric stared at Hyde, yeah he’d been preoccupied with Donna, but had he really abandoned Hyde that much?

“How the hell did we not notice?” Eric finally said.

“Hyde must have given us excuses,” Fez suggested.

Donna shook her head racking her brain for one single time he’d given them an excuse. A handful of times he’d said he was going to work, but he did work so that was probably the truth. Even if every time had been a lie, that still wasn’t enough to cover all the time he’d spent with Jackie.

“Yeah, I don’t remember a single excuse,” she said. 

“I didn’t give any,” he said irritably. He didn’t like them all trying to get into his head.

Sensing that Hyde was uncomfortable Jackie piped up, “Now that I’m back I’ll have to get you all out of the basement.”

“But you just came back to the basement,” Fez pouted, he wasn’t ready to leave Farrah yet.

“I do brighten up the place don’t I?”

Hyde smiled and then realized he had so he quickly went back to indifference.

But Jackie had seen it, and so had Eric. 

“I think in honor of Jackie’s return and both of my parents being at work, we should celebrate.”

They all moved into their spots in the circle.

“It’s good to be back,” Jackie said.


	16. Take A Chance On Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I'm triple posting tonight.

Donna driving them that day had put a dent in Hyde’s time alone with Jackie, and he couldn’t get a read on her in front of everyone.

He was sure Donna had blabbed.

She was still playing the princess act, not as spoiled as before summer, but when she did it she wore a mask. He was good at seeing through it but she was being extremely cautious. He didn’t know if it was against him now that she knew or the rest of them.

Donna and Eric left to go on a date.

Fez looked like he was going to hang around.

Jackie fake yawned, “Well, I’m going to head home. Night boys,” and got up and walked out the door. 

Hyde waited two minutes before getting up to leave. Fez was so engrossed in the TV he didn’t notice.

Jackie was leaning against the porch railing when he got outside.

“Hey,” she smiled nervously. She let the mask fall away and she was back to being the Jackie he’d seen every day this summer.

“Hey,” he said back. “Want a ride?”

“Sure.”

They got in the car.

“You know what?” Jackie said tentatively, “I don’t feel like going home.”

“Not much to do tonight,” he said.

She shrugged, “That’s okay.”

He drove randomly through the town out to the lake. It was the one cool place during the summer.

They parked and got out and sat in the back of the Camino. Jackie let the silence go on, she wasn’t going to start by pushing him. But Hyde was tapping his fingers on his leg or the side of the car.

Finally, he couldn’t stand the wondering any longer. “Did Donna tell you the rest of it?”

“Yes,” Jackie said slowly, “and it doesn’t change what I thought yesterday, but I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“That’s cool,” Hyde said putting up a wall of Zen.

“Don’t play that with me, Steven Hyde,” Jackie snapped at him.

“What?”

“You taught me that, don’t go all Zen on me.”

“So what do you want me to say?” he asked. “I told you I don’t know what we’re doing.”

“Whatever this is I’m willing to figure it out if you are.”

“Look, I want to figure this out, but Jackie we gotta talk about the fight first.” This wasn’t him, but he wasn’t going to have something pop up and ruin it later. 

“Fine,” she huffed, “I know that you got in a really bad fight, and everyone threatened Kelso.”

“I didn’t just get in a fight. I lost control and yeah I’d probably do it again, but Jackie it was bad.”

Jackie shook her head, “I don’t know what you want me to say about that. I don’t care that you got in a fight. No, that’s not true. I do care but only because I don’t want you to get hurt or in trouble.”

She didn’t understand why he was acting so weird, he’d been in fights before.

He looked so worried, “Jackie if I ever…” he couldn’t say it. The idea of hurting her made him sick.

It clicked. She knew what his problem was, now she could almost hear it screaming from his soul. Jackie sat up on her knees, turning her whole body to face him better.

“Steven, look at me.”

When he did, she reached out and pulled off his sunglasses then took his hand. It was still bruised and red.

The same hand that had brushed her hair back at the diner when he’d come to save her, the same one that held her hand with such gentle care, the one that pulled her off the ground at the concert.

They were strong and battered but gentle, just like him.

“You are not your parents, I know they were worse to you than you’ve ever said. But you’re not them Steven.” Jackie looked him straight in the eye, “Have you ever hit a girl?”

“No.”

“I hope you’re listening to me,” she was careful with her words, every one could make or destroy her friendship with him. “I have never once been afraid of you. Since I wasn’t there, I can’t say if you went too far or screwed up, but I trust you not to ever hurt me.”

His heart was in his throat.

“Jackie I would never, I may be a dirtbag but I don’t hit girls. But I did screw up, I didn’t even mean to hit Kelso like that, it just happened. I couldn’t stop.”

She reached out to touch his cheek, “You’re not a dirtbag Steven, try as you might, you just aren’t. You do deserve good things, Steven, you deserve to be loved.” 

He didn’t say anything, he hardly breathed so he didn’t break whatever spell she had on him.

“If you say you screwed up, then okay. You screwed up. There’s not a way to fix it, so we’ll deal with it if we have to.”

Hyde wanted desperately to believe it was that simple. Dealing with it might mean he ended up in jail, but she was right. If that was it there wasn’t anything he could do about it until it happened.

“Okay.”

Jackie smiled. It was enough.

“Since you want to talk about things, we’re going to talk about all the things.”

Yeah, he stepped into this.

“I want to be with you Steven, I like you. As my best friend and more than my best friend.”

He could say it, it wasn’t like he was declaring his undying- he stopped himself. That was too much to even think about right now.

“I like you too,” he said.

She knew that, deep down she’d known, but hearing it made it real.

“I’m afraid,” she admitted, “I’m going to lose you, and I can’t lose you. I don’t care how clingy that sounds. I just want to be with you. However, that is.”

Hyde wanted to tell her everything, something stopped him. No matter how much he wanted to he couldn’t, “Look I don’t know what to say, I don’t do this.”

“Do you want to?” she asked, her voice trembling.

Jackie’s giant eyes were full of everything. He could read hope, fear, something else he wasn’t ready to admit. It was all right there.

Did he want to? It wasn’t even a question.

“Yes.”

Jackie smiled, “You don’t need to call me your girlfriend, I don’t need a promise ring or something like that. But if we’re doing this, it’s just me, no other girls.”

He thought she must have been crazy to think there was another girl out there. He’d spent every spare minute with her for months.

“Jackie, I don’t want any other girl.”

Her chest warmed at that. She was taught that girls let boys chase them, they had to work for them, earn and buy every bit of affection a girl offered. Jackie pushed all of her mother’s training out of her head and leaned across and kissed him on the lips, timid at first before she deepened it.

Hyde let her take the lead in this until she drove him crazy and he pulled her closer.

Jackie was glad to learn that Steven Hyde could kiss.

She could happily spend the rest of her life just like this, sitting in the back of his car kissing as the sun went down.

Heat rose up her body, yet, she shivered against the cooling night air.

They broke apart breathlessly.

Jackie’s head was spinning.

Hyde’s lips felt like they were on fire.

Hyde spoke first, “Yeah, just to clarify, you can’t go out with other guys either.”

Her laugh was like a new kind of music he’d just discovered, “You drive a hard bargain, but agreed. Kiss to seal the deal?” 

He pulled her back in.

The next time they were in the basement they weren’t sitting together but Eric caught them sneaking glances at each other.

“Something’s different, here,” he said.

“Are you two together?” Fez asked.

Jackie glanced at Steven, she still didn’t know exactly what he was comfortable telling people, so she stayed silent. 

Hyde shrugged, “She’s my chick.”

Jackie turned back to the group a blindingly happy smile on her face, “Yeah, I’m his chick.”

It didn’t answer everything but it was a very good start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow I'm posting chapters 17 & 18 then maybe 19 on Sunday. After that It'll be a few days between again. 18 wasn't supposed to be a chapter on it's own but 17 was about 6k words. It might be a little choppy, so I hope parts of it make sense. 
> 
> We are going to take a little trip back in time with the next 2 chapters.


	17. Bad Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/CW potentially Graphic Fight Scene & it brings up Chapter 7/8 If you want to skip that you can go until they bring up Grant by name, I’ll also mark that with **** and then skip to the break after that.   
> Check my tags as well, Kelso gets dark in this story.

_One Week Before… The Forman’s basement_

Hyde was not in the mood for everyone or anyone.

His day started out freaken fantastic.

He’d slept lousy on the loveseat at Jackie’s and he’d do it again, but his neck was killing him. He was screamed at by Red Forman first thing in the morning as he snuck back in.

“What the Hell do you think you’re doing coming home at 6:30 in the morning?”

“I was with Leo, fell asleep at his place, it won’t happen again.”

“Is that so?” Red folded his arms. “Because Leo was hanging out in Bob’s backyard last night, so how about we try the truth before my foot goes so far up your ass you can polish my boots with your toothbrush.”

He didn’t know what he was thinking but he’d confessed. He needed to lay off his stash it was messing with his brain. 

“I was at Jackie’s last night.”

“The loud one?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you telling me you spent the night with a girl and didn’t have the decency to tell anyone you weren’t coming home?”

“No, not like that. Jackie’s parents aren’t home and some creep was bothering her and I didn’t want to leave her alone. I should have called but I did seriously fall asleep. Nothing happened I swear,” he had no idea why he said that.

Red had a daughter and could appreciate not wanting to leave her unprotected.

“You give me your word that that’s the truth?”

“Yes, that’s the truth.”

That was good enough for Red.

“Alright,” Red growled, “as far as Kitty knows you spent the night at ‘a friends’ house and fell asleep and forgot to call. But don’t pull a stunt like that again.”

What Hyde chose to hear was don’t get caught again, which he had a contingency plan. Probably wouldn’t work, so he might have to sneak out after curfew. Wouldn’t be the first time.

That conversation was meant to remain between Red and himself.

"You’ve been hanging out with Jackie?” came a shrill voice from behind him.

Kill him now.

For once in his life, Eric Forman was up before seven in the morning and heard everything.

Hyde looked Eric in the eyes, he wasn’t embarrassed and he wouldn’t back down on this. “Yeah, and?”

Eric’s mouth dropped open, “You’re dating The Devil?”

His brain was screaming, SHIT!

“Forman, stop being a girl. I am not dating Jackie. We’re friends.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“Why?”

“She’s Jackie, you hate her,” he pointed out.

He had once. “I haven’t hated her in a long time.”

Eric stared at Hyde like he’d lost his mind. “She’s Yoko man, she’s breaking up the band.”

Hyde shook his head, Eric didn’t get it. “She isn’t Yoko, or the Devil or anything else. She’s just Jackie.” Hyde pushed past him to the basement to try and get a couple of hours of sleep before work.

Hyde called Jackie from the Photo Hut to let her know she could stay with him or he could come over. She sounded funny when she said no. He really wanted to swing by and check on her but work ran late and now he was sitting in a God damned intervention.

Over Jackie.

Hyde put on his mask of Zen and settled in for the nightmare. Hopefully, it would end soon.

Fez was mostly sitting in the corner, eating a box of Jelly Beans. Hyde didn’t blame him. But he sure as hell could blame Eric and Donna.

And he did.

They were reading off of freaken note cards.

“We’re hurt you lied to us and went behind our backs to see the ex-girlfriend of your friend,” Donna began a stilted read-through of her cards.

“You broke our pact, brothers, before everything else,” Eric played up the guilt angle.

If he heard one more stupid word about that damn pact.

Give Hyde a time machine he’d go back and use it just to slap his eight-year-old self.

“We are your friends and we want you to stop seeing Jackie before you do something you’ll regret, and hurt all of us and especially Kelso,” Donna said.

Hyde tensed.

There was little that could make him snap, unfortunately for Donna, that was one of them.

“Get bent,” his voice was vicious. “First, I don’t give a damn about hurting Kelso’s feelings. Second, Jackie and I are friends and neither of us did anything wrong. Or do I have to ask permission to have friends?”

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, you wouldn’t have hidden it,” Eric said.

“Do you know why I didn’t say anything? Because it’s not my job to tell you not to be shit friends.”

“Hyde we are good friends,” Donna started.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“Hyde that’s not necessary,” Eric told him.

“Not necessary. You are all a bunch of hypocritical assholes do you know that?”

“How can you say that?” Donna raised her voice.

“We were all assholes, me included,” Hyde said, “We didn’t tell Jackie that Kelso was cheating on her again. That’s on all of us.”

They all looked at each other. Hyde was right.

“But Jackie left knowing we all hid that from her. Tell me Pinciotti, when is the last time you talked to Jackie?” Hyde wasn’t raging he was sarcastically calm, meaning rage was boiling just below the surface, “I know. We all do actually. It was two months ago on that couch. She left crying because her best friend lied to her.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“You’re right it isn’t. Now Forman isn’t her friend, but you supposedly were. What do your feminist morals say about taking the side of the guy who cheated on your best friend over your best friend?”

“Hyde that isn’t- I mean Jackie isn’t-”

“Say it,” Hyde pushed, “she wasn’t your friend.”

“That’s not true.”

“Do you know the worst thing Jackie said about you this summer? She didn’t call you a bitch or make fun of you. The worst thing Jackie said about you was Donna obviously wasn’t my friend.”

Donna looked fully ashamed at that.

“You guys are so quick to defend Kelso when he screwed up repeatedly. But what did Jackie do exactly?”

He let them think about it. Jackie had merely existed and it bothered them. Once upon a time, she had bothered him too, but not after he took the time to get to know her.

“If you knew what Kelso’s done to Jackie.” He shook his head, he wasn’t going to bring that up, he couldn’t prove it.

“You know what forget it. You were too self-absorbed to call Jackie and apologize, and you hurt her. Now you’re saying that she’s an awful person for hanging out with the one person who did apologize to her and didn’t ignore her all summer.”

He wanted them to get it, to feel bad, and he could do worse but he didn’t need to.

“Yeah, Donna, you’re a great friend.”

Donna stood stunned.

She felt like she’d been slapped.

Eric and Fez were silent. This was more between Donna and Hyde, but they were just as at fault in some of it.

Hyde could scream and explain but he wasn’t going to. He was going to go and make sure Jackie was okay and maybe he could calm down.

He was about to leave when the door slammed open.

Fucking great.

“You’re dead,” Kelso shouted.

“What the hell is your problem now?”

“You’re dating Jackie.”

“No, I’m not,” Hyde spat back.

“Then why is everyone saying that you are? Huh?”

“How should I know?”

“Why were you at her house last night? Why was your car still there this morning?” Kelso shrieked. “You wouldn’t have stayed there all night if nothing happened.”

“We watched a movie, I fell asleep. Is that okay with you?” Hyde asked. “Oh, wait, I don’t care.”

Kelso towered over Hyde and got in his face.

“Back off of Jackie she’s mine, you can’t touch her.”

“She’s yours?” Hyde asked furiously. “Is that why you’re screwing your way through the senior class?”

“Jackie belongs to me and she always will.”

Hyde had never been intimidated by Kelso, he’d been threatened by a hell of a lot bigger and badder men his mother had brought home.

He wasn’t taking any of it from Kelso.

Hyde moved closer into Kelso’s space, “What the fuck did you say to Grant Billings about Jackie?”

Kelso’s face fell in surprise, and then slowly a smile spread across his face. It was eerie, it was so completely calm and serene.

******SKIP********

“I didn’t tell Grant, I told everybody.” Kelso laughed.

“What’s going on?” Fez who had been mostly silent through the intervention was sensing there was something they didn’t know. Kelso and Hyde fought all the time, but the room felt wrong. Volatile.

Both ignored him.

“What did you do Kelso?” Hyde held his temper by a thread, he needed to hear it from Kelso that he’d done it. He knew he had, but he needed to hear the words.

Kelso continued smiling strangely, “I told them that if they wanted to hit it with Jackie, all they had to do was put out some cash for flowers and a fancy dinner.”

“Kelso,” Donna said shocked.

Kelso ignored her, right now it was just him and Hyde, he wanted to hurt him any way he could. “Did she let you go for it, Hyde? Probably not, maybe you should scrape up some money and try my way. If not someone else will get there sooner or later.”

Hyde was going to kill him.

He lunged at Kelso and knocked him to the ground, furniture crashed around them. They wrestled until Hyde pinned him to the ground. Over and over he hit Kelso, he felt bone crunch under his knuckles.

There was screaming and hands were pulling at him, but Hyde wouldn’t let up, he couldn’t even hear them.

A searing shock of cold hit him and in the second it took him to regain his focus, Red had him by the neck and Donna was helping pull him off of him.

“Get in the garage now. You are not doing this in my house,” Red raged at him. 

He heard Kelso cough.

“Kitty deal with him.”

Red dragged Hyde to the garage and shut the door.

Donna blocked the only exit and Eric had followed them.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’m sorry Red,” was all Hyde could say.

“You bet you’ll be sorry. You’re out of this house right now if you don’t tell me what happened.”

Eric started. “Dad, Kelso was saying stuff, I-I can’t believe what he said.”

Red looked at his son, he was in some kind of shock.

“Donna,” Red snapped.

“I don’t understand some of it, but Kelso was saying he told everyone- that Jackie was easy and just awful stuff.”

“Steven, start talking.”

His breathing was erratic, and he could hardly focus on what he was saying, “The guy I told you took Jackie out the other night, he told her things he’d heard about her, basically calling her a whore. I drove her home. Her parents didn’t come home I didn’t know that or I wouldn’t have left her. I wouldn’t have. Kelso admitted that he’s been telling everyone that. Jackie could have ended up-” he couldn’t say it, “and that bastard laughed about it.”

“Mr. Forman,” Donna spoke, “Kelso was scary, that wasn’t normal.”

Red had no idea what to do with the kids. This wasn’t something easily dealt with.

Steven had a temper, but he normally kept it in check.

“You three stay, keep him in here. I mean it. I’m going to see about Kelso and we’ll go from there.”

When Red got down to the basement Kitty and the foreign kid had Kelso cleaned up but the boy didn’t look good.

“How is he?”

“He needs to go to the hospital for X-rays but I think he’s okay.”

She looked at Red, “What happened? Why did Steven do that?”

“It’s complicated but I don’t think you can blame him.”

“I do blame him,” Kitty said angrily. 

“Kitty, let’s get him to the car and I’ll tell you about it after.”

“Alright. I trust you.”

******STOP********

Eric had never seen Hyde like this, not when he’d gotten in fights as a kid, not when Hyde showed up at his window in the middle of the night and Eric was sure his mom or her boyfriend had hit him, not even when his parents had abandoned him.

But for Hyde levels, he was near hysterical. He was shaking in his chair, and for a guy of few words, they all came tumbling out about Jackie.

Eric didn’t like Jackie, but she didn’t deserve that.

She was apparently very important to Hyde, even if he hadn’t said anything.

Kelso was hurt but in a way so was Hyde. Kelso was his friend. But Hyde was his brother.

His brother needed him.

“Hyde, it’s going to be okay.”

Donna and Eric stepped out of the garage when they saw Fez and Red helping Kelso into the car. 

“Mom, is he going to be okay?”

“He’s pretty hurt, but I should think so.”

Eric walked to the backseat.

“Kelso, can you hear me?”

He nodded.

“Good, I want you to hear me. If you say anything about who did this, I will tell Jack Burkhart exactly what you did to his daughter. Every last thing. He’s friends with your dad’s boss right? And the police chief and a whole lot of other people. You keep your mouth shut about Hyde. Do you understand?”

Kelso’s eye was already swelling but he stared at his friend.

Kelso was conscious of pain and that something had changed. Eric was the wimp, Eric let things go and didn’t get confrontational. This wasn’t Eric, this wasn’t his friend.

“Do you understand me?” Eric asked again.

He nodded again.

Donna pushed Eric aside, “You got mugged. This didn’t happen tonight and it wasn’t Hyde, we’ll all lie and say the same thing.”

“We need to get going,” Kitty said.

Eric and Donna backed away from the car.

On the drive to the hospital, Kelso thought about what his friends had just done. Hyde had turned them all against him. Like he’d turned Jackie against him. He was probably the one to convince her not to take him back.

It was all his fault.

He’d do what they said for now, but he was going to get back at Hyde.

Steven was sitting at the kitchen counter when Kitty and Red came home. His things were packed in a bag downstairs ready to go when they kicked him out.

Red had explained everything to Kitty. She understood why but was angry that he’d chosen to fight.

Red understood the need to protect even if he thought Steven went too far.

Red looked at Steven, the boy looked almost broken. “You’re grounded. We’ll discuss your punishment in the morning. I’m going to bed.”

Kitty wanted Red to stay and yell at him, but the way he kept his eyes down was not Steven.

She took his hand and looked at it and poked at it. “Does this hurt?” she said in a clipped tone.

“Yes,” he answered quietly. Kitty went over to the fridge and pulled out an ice pack and rested it on his hand. “Twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off”

“I’m sorry Mrs. Forman.”

Kitty looked at her boy, he was vulnerable for the first time in years and it shattered her resolve to be angry. She almost thought he had tears in his eyes.

“Steven why, why did you go that far?”

“I didn’t mean to.” He sounded so small. Kitty had never seen him like this, not once.

She pulled up the chair next to him.

“Tell me what happened. I heard some of it from Red but I want you to tell me.”

He wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, and she could see every bit of pain in his eyes.

“The night Jackie called me crying from a payphone because she was so scared someone was going to attack her. Kelso did that. He did that and then he laughed about it. She could have been-”

“You don’t need to, I know.” She knew more than maybe he did.

“Said he told everyone, everyone at school that she’s easy, kept saying she belonged to him, he kept saying things about her. He got everyone in the basement to abandon her, and he thought it was funny. And I snapped. I didn’t mean to,” He repeated.

He broke her heart. She could see it all over his face.

Steven was in love with Jackie.

And he was scared. About that, about what he’d done.

She wrapped her arms around him.

“I don’t want to be like them. I didn’t mean to go that far.”

“Steven, you’re growing up and you can’t solve every problem with your fists. You will need to work on controlling your temper, but you are a good person. You made a mistake, we all do. But this one mistake doesn’t define you.”

“Michael is hurt but he’ll be fine in time. Go to bed, and get some sleep. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

In a rare moment for Steven, he hugged Kitty. She patted his back.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she told him. She prayed that she was right. 


	18. Simple Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double post today.

Hyde went to bed but he couldn’t sleep.

His mind was racing, he needed a hit but he wasn’t up for going down a bad trip when he was like this.

The only person that could calm him down he couldn’t call because he couldn’t hide it from her, seeing her was out because wasn’t good to be around right now. 

It was inevitable. Jackie would find out and she would hate him.

If he was honest, he should have seen it coming, he was trash just like his parents. He’d hurt Kelso and he knew he’d gone way too far. If Red hadn’t pulled him off of him, he might have killed Kelso tonight.

What’s worse it could have been Eric, it could have been Donna, God forbid it had been Jackie. If anyone had gotten in between him and Kelso he didn’t know if he’d have been able to tell and stop.

Everyone had left him alone after Red and Kitty left. Once he got himself together, he’d gone down to the basement and packed. They hadn’t kicked him out yet. He debated leaving now, but he took refuge in the bedroom of the only home he’d ever known one last time.

Eventually, sleep took him. Not for long but it was enough.

He knew there would be hell to pay today. He felt more of himself today now that the shock was gone.

He called Jackie to tell her he’d be busy, he just wasn’t sure with what. Probably looking for a new place.

“Red’s got me doing stuff I don’t know if I can get out today.”

“That’s okay, I’ll just work on my tan,” Jackie told him completely oblivious to the chaos he was dealing with. He was glad of that.

She didn’t need to deal with his problems.

But simply hearing her voice, knowing that she wasn’t involved in any of this soothed something in his chest.

Red appeared in the kitchen.

“Good, you’re up. You can clean out the basement, the garage, and the attic. Then help Kitty with some stuff.”

“But Red-”

“Get to it no arguing. And don’t even think of taking off.”

Kitty made him breakfast.

“I’m not hungry Mrs. Forman.”

“Well, that’s too gosh darn bad, sit and eat your breakfast before you start all that work.”

“Okay.” 

Kitty kissed the top of his head, and sat next to him with her own food.

When they finished their food Kitty told him, “I’m still disappointed with you, but we still love you.” She got up and took his plate, “And Red said you’d probably try to move out, let me tell you something, mister. If you leave this house I will find you and drag you back here by your nose. You belong here.”

It was probably the most threatening thing he’d ever heard Kitty say. It wasn’t a threat to scare him though.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

So Steven swept and wiped down everything in the garage. It was better than being in the basement and better than talking to anyone. He couldn’t even be around Jackie until he got his head on right or she’d know something happened.

“Hey, can we talk?” Eric, Donna, and Fez approached him.

“I think you talked enough yesterday. Don’t you need your note cards?”

They let that one go, they deserved that.

“We talked to Kelso, we told him to say that he was mugged and we’d lie about it if he said anything.”

Hyde didn’t look at them as he swept. “Thanks,” he muttered.

“He’s pretty hurt but he’ll be okay,” Donna told him.

“That’s good.”

He was glad he hadn’t seriously hurt Kelso, he felt guilty that he’d done it. He also didn’t want to end up in jail. But as his friend- they were done.

“We’re sorry man, we really didn’t know,” Eric said.

“Would it have mattered? You know the pact.”

“Yes, it would have,” Eric said. “If I had known…”

“We wouldn’t have let him,” Donna finished.

“You can’t stop Kelso from doing anything,” Hyde said, this wasn’t even about Kelso anymore.

There was a pause. No one knew what to say.

“The intervention was stupid,” Fez piped up. “I for one do not care if you were hanging out with Jackie.”

“Thanks, Fez,” Hyde said.

“We didn’t mean to be mean about it,” Donna said for both her and Eric.

“You called Jackie Yoko,” Fez reminded Eric. 

“Not helping Fez.”

“Look,” Hyde stopped sweeping, he was over this. “You guys can do whatever you want, I didn’t tell you because this is how you always overreact. Jackie and I weren’t doing anything wrong. I don’t care if you believe me or not, but I heard enough yesterday.”

“Kelso fooled us, he lied to us,” Donna said.

“No, he didn’t,” Hyde said. “Kelso has always done everything out in the open. He cheated and got caught. He complained that Jackie wasn’t giving him any attention when he was already sleeping with other girls. He didn’t hide he just didn’t get caught as quickly.”

He couldn’t make them see.

“That’s not even the point,” Hyde went on, “You all abandoned Jackie, and you wanted me to abandon her too, for Kelso.”

Donna glanced at Eric.

“That pact we made is dead. Kelso and I aren’t coming back from this. Not this time. Not even before last night. If you can’t deal with me being friends with Jackie tell me.”

Eric knew they’d just lost a friend, he wasn’t about to lose another. He spoke for all of them.

“We want to fix things with Jackie.”

That threw Hyde, he hadn’t expected that.

“We were wrong, and we’ll tell her. If she forgives us, great. If she doesn’t, all we can do is try.”

Hyde and Eric looked at each other. A million things passing between them, not one of them said.

Whatever either said could determine the fate of their friendship.

“I gotta go clean the attic,” Hyde said and walked away.

Eric understood. Hyde was processing. He wasn’t ready to get over it without proof that they were willing to change. But it wasn’t a screw you or go to hell. So they might still have their friendship.

“How do we fix things with Hyde?” Donna asked.

Eric turned to Donna and Fez.

“No,” Eric said, “that isn’t it. It’s how do we fix things with Jackie?” Eric was completely certain, “If we don’t fix it with Jackie, we’re not getting Hyde back.”

They came up with a plan, it had to be Donna who made the first move.

Donna hated it but knew they were right. It was on her to talk to Jackie first.

Fez came to the basement the next morning with news.

“Kelso’s parents are sending him to Virginia to heal because they’re scared of the mugger. He doesn’t know when he’s coming back.”

“Fez, are you going to be able to go along with that story?” Eric asked him.

“Yes, that was not my friend.” Fez looked near tears. He had always been closest with Kelso. They had silly antics, but Fez couldn’t go along with this. “Kelso crossed a line.”

They finally caught Hyde coming out of his room a couple of days later, which was a lot harder than you’d think. He was an expert at staying away when he didn’t want to be found.

“Hyde we need to talk to you, no note-cards,” Eric tried to joke.

Scowling Hyde took his chair.

“We want to make things right. We know you aren’t going to forgive us until we fix things with Jackie.”

Hyde simply stared blankly at him, he wasn’t going to give them anything. 

“Right, okay. Donna is going to call Jackie and apologize first and then bring her here and the rest of us will do the same,” Eric told him. 

Hyde shook his head.

“You guys are so stupid. Did you ever think you don’t need a plan, that you could just I don’t know call her like normal people?”

“Not after how long it’s been,” Donna said, feeling more guilty about all of it. Maybe none of it would have happened if she had called Jackie before. It certainly couldn’t have been this bad.

“We’re trying here,” Fez said.

“Fine, but don’t tell Jackie about the fight.”

“How the hell are we going to avoid that?” Eric asked.

“Same way you always did, just keep your mouths shut.”

They could feel their chance at fixing things with him slipping away the more agitated he got.

“Okay, okay. Let me call her.” Donna went upstairs to call Jackie in private. She returned a short time later.

“Jackie said she needs a ride, but she’ll come and talk to us.”

“I’ll get her,” Hyde said grabbing his keys and storming out the door.

“So, that could have gone better,” Eric said lamely.

“Just wait until Jackie finds out,” Donna sat down on the couch it was going to be a long day. 

“Hyde told us not to say anything,” Fez reminded them.

“It doesn’t matter Fez, there’s no way those rumors Kelso started are going to completely go away, even if Jackie did kick that guy, we don’t know how many people Kelso told.”

“Why would he do that?” Fez asked almost to himself.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” Donna said.

“I hadn’t heard anything except Jackie kicking that guy,” Fez said.

“Maybe she’ll get lucky and it won’t be that bad,” Eric replied. 

“Yeah, but Kelso starts a rumor that hurts Jackie, Kelso gets beat up, Jackie has a new protector, someone’s going to put it together sooner or later,” Donna said.

“And Jackie will be furious,” Eric finished for her.

“Today is going to be bad isn’t it?” Fez asked.

“Yeah, Fez. Today is probably going to be bad.”

Hyde drove the longest route to Jackie’s house. He needed to calm down before he got to her.

He stopped for a minute to take a breath.

He hadn’t been able to leave the house, he probably shouldn’t be gone now, but he couldn’t stay in the house another minute.

Yes, he cared about his friends but he didn’t know if they were sorry because they were wrong, or if they felt guilty about what Kelso did.

All he knew was that he was tired. He felt guilty about what he’d done but Kelso put Jackie in danger, and he’d laughed. Something wasn’t right there and it was more worrisome than the threat of Kelso having him arrested or getting kicked out.

He’d do whatever was necessary to keep Jackie safe.

Hyde would have liked a few more minutes to regroup but Jackie was waiting on him.

He followed the familiar turns until he got to her street.

He slowed the car, Jackie was sitting on the lawn sunning herself as she waited.

She was beautiful, she always was.

For the first time in days, Hyde felt a moment of peace.

He savored it, incase it was the last time he got to see her before she hated him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we are back to the present timeline
> 
> These 2 fight chapter didn't exist until everyone started coming for Donna which fair, and then it snowballed. Hope you like. Hyde is maybe Out Of Character but I also think he would be freaked at losing control, then mad at himself for letting it happen/ people saw. 
> 
> I try to be good at responding to comments because I do appreciate everyone taking time to read what I’ve worked so hard on. If I haven’t responded or ignored a large part of your comment, mainly B_August, Kim9818, & Callvesb, I’m not ignoring you, but I couldn’t respond because it was all SO plot relevant to the last few chapters. Sometimes I wonder if you’re hacking into my flashdrive.


	19. I Want You To Want Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back in the present timeline and stepping back from the angst for a minute.

Jackie came into the basement early one morning. She liked for Steven to drive her, but she was up early and wanted to get to the basement before the others filled it up.

She was so used to them avoiding everyone that it now felt like they were never alone anymore.

Steven was already awake and going through things, the basement was a mess. 

“Hey,” she kissed him on the cheek before hopping up onto the freezer watching him. “What are you doing?”

“Packing. Formans’ are taking us camping for a week starting Saturday.”

Jackie’s face fell, “So I won’t get to see you guys for a whole week?”

He shrugged. “You could come,” Steven said nonchalantly. 

“Really?”

“Didn’t think you’d want to but Fez is going, Forman’s would prefer you.”

She smiled coyly at him, “Just the Forman’s?”

“Probably Donna too, have another girl around.”

Jackie got down and inched closer, “Donna. Hmm, I don’t know if that’s a good enough offer. I’m a girl and better than Fez.”

“Jackie.”

“Yes.”

He looked down at her, “I would like it if you went with us if you want to go.”

Her eyes warmed, she stood on her toes and kissed his lips. “That wasn’t so hard was it?”

He wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer.

“Ew, get a room,” Eric said bringing a basket of laundry down. 

“We had one, you just don’t knock,” Hyde told him.

Eric waved his arms around “You’re in the middle of the basement. Anyway, Jackie, my mom said you should bring two extra sets of complete outfits and sweaters or something for the nights, it gets pretty cold up there after dark.”

“Your mom?”

“She also wanted to know if you’d eat all the stuff she was packing, so you might want to head up later and check with her.”

“That’s for the camping trip? Jackie clarified.

“Yeah,” Eric said slowly, “Hyde said you were going.”

She turned to face Steven, “He did, did he?”

“Forman, don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

“Not really.”

“Out,” Hyde nearly shouted.

“Whatever, I’m going to find Donna.”

Jackie beamed up at Steven, “You were going to ask me all along?

He tried to hide it but she saw through him, “Maybe.”

“Steven Hyde,” she half scolded before kissing him.

They found themselves on the couch. 

After a while, they heard and ignored the door opening.

“Oh yey, kissing.”

Jackie was pressed into the seat cushions of the couch, “Fez out,” she yelled.

“Okay.” He opened the door and shut it but remained in the basement watching them.

“Now,” Hyde got off the couch shoving Fez out the door locking it behind him. 

“Where were we?”

“Maybe Eric was right?” Jackie got up off the couch backing up to his room. “Maybe we should get a room.”

She stopped when her back hit the door waiting for him to make a move.

He reached around her and unlocked the door.

After an intense make-out session, Jackie found herself going through an army’s worth of food up in the kitchen with Kitty.

“Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Forman.”

“You’re so welcome. It’s not every day that Steven tells us he has a girlfriend.”

“I-don’t know if I’m really his girlfriend,” Jackie stammered. Had he called her that? No Jackie was sure he hadn’t.

“Honey,” Kitty said gently, “I’ve known that boy over ten years, he’s never had a girl around at all. Much less ask if you could go camping with us. If you’re not his girlfriend I don’t know what to tell you.”

Jackie knew that was true, so he hadn’t asked her specifically. They were clearly together, and there was only that one girl he’d liked but none of them had seen her more than once or twice.

Kitty interrupted her analysis of their relationship, “Do you want us to call your parents and give them the itinerary?”

“I don’t think it’s necessary. My mom’s out of town and my dad has a business trip for the next two weeks. I’ll tell them to call if they have any questions though.”

She’d tell her dad she was going camping, he’d probably love the idea of giving the maid and cook the week off. But she’d leave out the part about three teenage boys going with them. Yep, a girls’ trip with Donna sounded right.

“I’m so glad you’re back, it’s been so quiet around here,”

“I’ve missed being here.” Jackie didn’t know if she should say it, but that never stopped her before. “Mrs. Forman, please don’t be angry with Steven.”

Kitty stopped her fussing around the kitchen.

“I’m not angry with him, but I am disappointed that he chose to fight with Michael. I can understand why he did it, but it was still wrong.”

Jackie nodded. As long as they weren’t kicking Steven out of the house it would be okay.

“But I would like to ask how you’re doing?” Kitty broke her out of her thoughts.

“Me?” Her father hadn’t even asked how she had been when he’d come home finally.

“What happened with that boy, it must have been scary.”

Jackie felt sick again. “It was.”

“If you want to talk about it I’m a great listener,”

Jackie smiled at Kitty. Eric didn’t know what he had. They talked while Jackie helped organize the supplies.

The Formans knew that Jackie’s parents had left her at home far too often. An evening here or there was one thing, but days alone with no one to check on a young girl wasn’t safe.

“Jackie, did your parents come home?”

“Yes, my dad came home from his business trip a couple of days ago.”

“Well, the next time you’re alone I want you to come over here and you can stay in Laurie’s room. Or I can kick Red out and we’ll have a good old-fashioned slumber party,” Kitty laughed.

Jackie’s eyes nearly filled with tears.

“Thank you, Mrs. Forman.”

If there was any place she felt safe it was here.

As much as Jackie was happy to be included, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to antagonize Steven.

She wasn’t a saint after all. 

They were sitting alone in the basement watching TV.

“Steven, who asked if I could tag along?” 

He ate his chips, focused on the TV, “Mrs. Forman included everyone.”

“Is that right? That’s not what she said upstairs.”

He tensed up a little, “Maybe I did ask, I for one can’t wait to see you have to deal with bugs and dirt everywhere.”

“Stop teasing me,” she whined. 

“Whatever Beulah.”

“You’re going to regret that,” she glared at him, he knew how much she disliked her middle name.

“I don’t think so,” he smiled, perfectly at ease with her again.

“Fine,” Jackie pursed her lips together, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Whatever.”

Jackie seemed to let it go and relax on the couch.

“Anyway, it was nice of the Forman’s to let me go. Mrs. Forman is so much nicer to talk to than my mom.”

“Hmm,” he hummed in agreement.

Jackie bided her time watching her unsuspecting prey. She waited for Steven to get the soda bottle to his lips and drink from it.

With an obnoxiously loud and bright voice, she asked him, “Did you really tell her I’m your girlfriend?”

He spit the coke out in a spray of soda.

For a split second he panicked about where she’d push that question, she merely smiled and handed him a napkin and said “I told you to stop making fun of me.”

Over the summer when it was only the two of them, it was almost like they were on eggshells, she’d gotten softer, less hung up on things that didn’t matter. But he’d ignored part of her personality. The part Forman called _Devil_. 

He took the napkin and wiped his mouth, “I forgot that you can be evil.”

“You should never forget that,” she gave him an evil grin before planting a quick kiss on his lips. They tasted like cherry coke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, my ego is preventing me from walking through doorways just so you know. Totally your faults. 
> 
> I got the series on DVD :D so bye while I binge watch. Kidding but I will be posting every few days from now on because I seriously did nothing most of this week besides write. Fun, but my house is a mess.


	20. Sweet Emotion

They’d split the drive between the Vista Cruiser and the Toyota. Hyde hated not having his own car but reluctantly settled into the back of the Cruiser.

Hyde suffered through the middle seat but Jackie was pushed against him on one side with her legs draped over his to create more room.

She was so small it didn’t matter but he wasn’t going to complain. She was wearing shorts which meant he got to rest his hands on her legs the whole drive, it was a hardship he’d have to endure.

“I’m bored,” Fez whined for the fifteenth time. “How much longer?”

“Fez are you going to complain the whole way there?” Donna asked.

“Yes,” he pouted.

“No offense Jackie,” Eric told her, “but Jackie hasn’t even complained about the drive.”

“Offense taken Nerd,” Jackie spat back at him.

“That is because she is in the arms of the one she loves, and I am alone.”

They all rolled their eyes, the last thing they needed was a depressive moping Fez.

Jackie asked nicer this time, “Seriously, Eric how much longer?”

“At least an hour, I don’t know.”

“Steven can you reach my bag it’s the white one?” He let go of her and reached into the trunk where everything was stashed. He grabbed the handled and yanked it over to her.

“Thank you.” 

She rummaged through it, finding what she wanted and tossed it to Fez.

“Here Fez.”

“Cookies?”

“Just for you. _If_ you stop whining.” 

He took the bag eagerly

Hyde played with the ends of her hair, “That was nice of you?” he said softly.

“I asked the cook to make them for me. They were for everyone, but this is an emergency.”

It got them half an hour of silence of everything but the radio.

“Ai my tummy.”

“Fez, you stop or we’re tying you to the roof,” Hyde told him.

“You wouldn’t do that, Jackie wouldn’t let you.” He looked at her pleadingly.

“He’s right Steven.”

“See,” Fez was smug that Jackie would protect him.

“The ropes are with the tents in the other car, we’d have to bungee cord him to the bumper,” Jackie said irritably. 

With no one to protect him Fez settled for only whining to himself from time to time. Eric ignored him and turned up the radio.

At the end of a very long half hour, they parked behind Red and Kitty.

“Boys, go get some firewood and watch out for poison ivy,” Kitty suggested.

“Hey Fez, why don’t you uh stay and help us,” Donna said. She knew he’d either get lost or come back covered in poison ivy.

“Okay.” He carried things from the car and dropped them in a pile. It wasn’t helpful but still better than a Fez who’d been in anyway injured. Red might kill him over the whining if he got hurt.

They unloaded the cars and waited for Eric and Hyde to come back.

Fez then stayed with Kitty for the most part organizing the food.

“When those dumbasses get back I’ll have to start a fire,” Red grumbled. 

“I can start the fire Mr. Forman,” Jackie offered.

“You?” Donna asked.

“Yes, me. I was a girl scout Donna, of course I know how to start a fire.”

It was like none of them had ever paid attention to what she said, she thought.

Jackie scrapped up dead bunches of pine needles and brush to get it started once the boys got back,

The boys came back with armfuls of branches.

Jackie took the branches and got to work. “You’ll have to get more this will only work for maybe two hours.”

“But there’s spiders and snakes out there,” Eric pouted.

Donna got up, “I’ll go get more firewood.”

“Eric, why don’t you help with camp,” Kitty suggested, “Get the tents set up so we can unpack the rest.”

“I can pitch a tent.”

“I’ll bet,” smirked Hyde.

“I’ll have you know I was the best helper in Mrs. Addams scout group,” Eric said proudly.

Donna looked horrified between Eric and Jackie.

“Oh God there’s two of them.” She turned to Hyde, “And we’re dating them.”

Hyde watched both Eric and Jackie work.

“Hey, mine’s hot at least.” 

She slapped his arm, “Shut up.”

In the cool of the evening the fire roared and they all sat around roasting marshmallows.

Eric and Jackie ended up next to each other on a log. The others were lost in their own conversations. 

Jackie spoke quietly, “Eric, Donna told me what you did for him. I just- thank you.”

He shrugged it off, “I’d do anything for Hyde.”

“Anyway that was kind of badass.”

His eyes lit up, “Do you think Donna thought so?”

“I’m sure she totally did.”

“Badass enough to get her to go with me to Comic Con as Princess Leia,”

Jackie started laughing, “I don’t know Eric, I’ll ask her.”

“Thanks Jackie. And look, I know I said I was sorry in the group but I mean it, I’m sorry I wasn’t nice to you before.”

“Thank you, and it’s okay.”

Steven looked at Jackie and Eric getting along. As much as Eric claimed he hated Jackie they had some twisted almost sibling thing going on. It was like him and Laurie, Hyde didn’t hate Laurie, but he loved to torment her when he could.

It was nice to see Jackie interacting with the rest of them again. The sneaking around hadn’t bothered him, but Jackie needed people.

The seats shifted around as the night wore on and Jackie was next to Steven. She’d been trying not to be too clingy. It was different now, and she didn’t want to suffocate him.

Jackie shivered.

Hyde started to take off his jacket, when she stopped him.

“No you’ll get cold and I’ve got another sweater in my tent.”

“How about this,” he pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her.

“Hmm, I don’t hate it.” 

Kitty passed out marshmallows and Jackie toasted some perfectly golden brown and gave them to Steven.

He didn’t know what they were, they hadn’t labeled it anything, but this was pretty close to perfect.

The next morning Red grudgingly took them all to the lake while he fished.

“My dad never took me fishing. I’m going to catch a fish,” Jackie said enthusiastically as they followed the trail to the lake. 

“You’re going to catch a fish?” Steven asked.

“I can totally fish, you just watch me.”

Once they reached the lake Red walked off by himself after saying, “I don’t want to have to come back and save you dumbasses so don’t do anything stupid.”

The boys unpacked everything.

“Donna help me,” she whispered.

“Can’t I don’t fish.”

“Damn it. What’s the point of your manly lumberjack ways if you don’t know how to do this kind of stuff?”

“Why did I miss you again?”

“Because I make your life better,” Jackie snapped. 

“I thought you were a girl scout?”

“We never got around to fishing.”

“Go ask Red, he’ll complain but he’ll show you.”

Jackie sucked up her pride and went to Mr. Forman. It was that or ask Steven, and that she would not do. Not when he’d just made fun of her. Sure he’d help her, but she refused to give him the satisfaction. 

“Mr. Forman, I don’t know how to do this.”

“Then sit around with the rest of them.”

“I can’t, I told Steven I could fish, please Mr. Forman,” Jackie pouted. She wasn’t doing it on purpose this time, but it was a secret weapon.

“Come here,” he growled.

“You put a bit of worm on the end of the hook see.”

“Eww,” she said instantly.

He smiled to himself, Laurie had reacted exactly the same way when he’d taken her fishing as a little girl. “Or a piece of hot dog, sometimes bread will get one.”

“A hot dog, I can do that.”

“You want to push it over the little barbs but not too far back and watch your fingers,” Red showed her carefully.

“Okay.”

“Then to cast the line,” He moved behind her and took her hand, “you pull your arm back a few times like this then when you want to throw it you push the button. But hold on to the rod, you don’t throw that.”

“Who would do that?” Jackie asked skeptically.

“Eric did.”

“When he was little?”

“You’d think so,” Red grumbled. “Now you try.”

Jackie swung her arm back and forth a few times and then pushed the button and the little bobbin went flying off and landed in the water with a plop. 

“Hey, one of you isn’t useless.” 

“I did it right?”

“Yes, you did. Now you watch your bobbin and if it sinks you give it a little jerk. If you think you caught something you reel it in.”

“Thank you Mr. Forman.” She gave him a quick hug then wound up the line and went back over to the group. 

“I’m going to try over there where it’s sunnier,” she announced. 

“You do that,” Hyde teased her.

Jackie stuck out her tongue at him and went into the sunny area not far off.

Eric got his line stuck in a tree and Steven had to help get it free.

Jackie smiled smugly to herself.

At the very least she managed to cast the line right, so no one could make fun of her for that.

A bit later her fishing rod gave a jerk.

“I caught something.”

“Probably just some plant snagged it,” Steven said, he had already dealt with Eric saying the same thing three times.”

But the line jerked to the side again.

Jackie struggled against whatever was pulling the line. The fishing rod was thin and she thought it might snap.

“Oh my God, Jackie actually got something,” Donna said shocked.

Finally, with some help from Steven, she pulled a fish out of the water.

“I did it.” 

Mr. Forman came over at the commotion, “I’ll say. That’s a keeper.”

“Oh your first fish. Hold on,” Kitty pulled out her polaroid and snapped a picture.

“You keep that up and we’ll have dinner,” Red told her encouragingly. 

Her smile faded.

“What’s the matter?” Steven asked her.

“I-I don’t know how to take it off the hook.”

Hyde laughed at her, “Want me to show you?”

“No, it’s gross could you do it for me?” She pouted on purpose this time, “Please?”

He sighed like it was an inconvenience but he knew there was no way in hell Jackie would have touched a live fish.

He took it off the hook and tossed it in the bucket. Jackie squealed at he pushed his fish covered hands towards her. Before rinsing them off in the water.

“What are you going to do when you have to clean it?” He asked her.

“Excuse me? Nuh uh. I am not doing that.”

“Fishing rules,” he told her calmly, “you catch it you clean it.”

She pushed the pole at him, “Then I’m done.

He laughed at her, “Jackie I’m kidding, come back.”

“You mean it.”

“You don’t have to clean the fish. Besides you’re the only one who got anything so far.”

“I did didn’t I?”

They stayed by the lake all day. Going between swimming and fishing. By the afternoon there was enough fish for dinner. Jackie was mysteriously absent when the fish was being prepped.

As a mature young woman, she was not ashamed to be hiding from fish prep on the trails with Donna.

Now that they were alone she had a question to her.

“Donna would you- I can’t believe I’m going to ask you this.” Jackie covered her face. “Would you humiliate yourself and dress up as the Star Wars girl?”

“What? No. Why would you even ask me that?”

“I may have told your boyfriend he was badass and he asked if you thought so and might do that.”

Donna groaned, “This is the problem with dating a nerd.”

“You picked him, and I can’t even say you should find someone better, because he was pretty great.”

“That is possibly the nicest thing you’ve ever said about Eric.” 

Jackie looked offended, “I know, but don’t tell him. I already gave him one compliment, I can’t have him thinking I’ve gone soft or anything.”

In an instant she got a glimpse into a Jackie that had been hanging out solely with Hyde. “Wow, do I see how you and Hyde can work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: How firm are all of you on the Anti-Donna train for his story?


	21. More Than A Feeling

At the end of the week, they’d had a marvelous time. Red hadn’t even threatened anyone in two days.

Trying to keep Fez from getting bitten or contagious was no small feat, but the week was filled with swimming, camping, fishing, stargazing.

It was the perfect ending to a summer that had started so badly.

The cars were being packed away and Kitty approached Red and Jackie having an animated conversation.

“Please, Mr. Forman I will give you twenty dollars.”

“I am not taking him,” Red said firmly.

“Thirty. He’s driving us nuts, we kept him out of everything all week. Please.”

“What’s going on here?” Kitty asked.

“Jackie wants us to take the foreign kid with us.”

“Oh, Jackie,” Kitty said sweetly, “no.” She liked Fez she really did, but she liked driving quietly with her husband a lot more.

“See, the wife says no. So not a chance in hell.”

She sighed, “Fine, but are we still going to work on cars next weekend?”

“If it’s not raining I’ll be there.”

“Okay, at least that’s something to look forward to,” she muttered as she muttered on her way back to the cruiser.

“We’re all packed Dad,” Eric shouted.

“Alright,” Red said, “See you back home and watch your gas.”

They all got in their cars and got ready for the long trip home.

“Red Forman, what was that?” Kitty asked him.

“Jackie tried to bribe me to take the annoying foreign one, I told you.”

“No, you two have plans for next week?” Kitty raised an eyebrow at that.

“She offered to help me fix the Corvette after what Eric did to it. She was pretty good at it last time.”

She smiled at him, “Red Forman you old softie.”

“No,” he said sternly, “I just need some help and she’s got tiny hands and can reach spots around the engine I can’t.”

“Right.” Kitty didn’t believe one word of it.

While Donna and Fez went home, Jackie stayed to help unpack. She was in the kitchen with Kitty. 

“You know,” Kitty began, “I knew Steven had someone this summer.”

“But we weren’t together,” Jackie told her.

“Potato Potahto, anyway I knew someone was making him happy.”

Jackie felt her cheeks heat up, “We were just friends until about two weeks ago.

“Friends at the start is the best way. Too many people see someone and go ‘I like them’ and start dating and then a while down the road go, ‘wow I hate everything you do’.”

“Were you and Mr. Forman friends before you two started dating?” Jackie knew how her parents met, they were introduced by mutual friends at the country club. To Jackie, it was all a little dull.

“Well, that’s a little bit different. It was during wartime,” Kitty stopped what she was doing to reminisce, “a big old marine got handsy with me and Red defended me. He was so handsome in his Navy uniform.”

Kitty lost a little of the dreamy look in her eyes remembering where she was, “Anyway, we saw a little of each other before he went off to Korea, but we wrote letters back and forth. Some of them got lost in the post. Sometimes it took a month for a letter to get to him, and another for him to send one back. But we got to know each other through those. I don’t know about him, but by the time he got back here I was head over heels for him.”

Jackie had also stopped working focusing only on the story, “That is so romantic.”

“It is isn’t it?” Kitty said smiling to herself remembering the USO dances they’d attended so many years before.

“You know I like you two kids together, I think you’ve been a good influence on Steven.”

“Really? Even with…”

“Even with that. He’s different, I can’t quite explain it. It’s a mom thing, you just know. But I don’t know how you two got together. Steven’s so secretive about those kinds of things.”

“Well, I found out Michael was cheating on me again with,” she stopped she couldn’t tell Kitty it was her daughter, “another girl. And then I found out everyone knew about it. I left and Steven came after me, he tried to drive me home but I wouldn’t let him. Then he found me and apologized for keeping the secret. We started hanging out every day and then one day he teased me because I was being bossy and it just hit me that I already had feelings for him. That wasn’t that long ago.”

“That’s pretty romantic too,” Kitty told her.

“You think so?”

“Secrets, friends falling in love, defying all odds, pretty romantic to me.”

“I don’t know, I’ve been told I’m a lot of trouble.” Jackie let the sarcastic remark slip. It hadn’t exactly bothered her when Donna said she was “a lot” but the more she thought about it, Donna hadn’t been the first one to mention it.

“I don’t think so,” Kitty said firmly. “But for argument’s sake let’s say you are trouble. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Steven loves trouble.” She winked at her, “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

It made Jackie smile. Maybe she was just letting her insecurities get the best of her.

Steven and Red stepped inside the kitchen.

“We decided that it’s too much hassle for anyone to cook, we’re getting a pizza,” Red told them.

“Oh, Red, we’ve been eating nothing but junk food for a week.”

“Not true, there was fish, that’s healthy. Besides, we voted and it’s already three to two so we’re getting pizza.”

“Fine, but just tonight. Tomorrow you are back on a healthier diet. All of you.”

“I better head home,” Jackie said and started looking for her things.

“Nonsense you’re staying for dinner,” Red told her.

“I don’t want to be a bother.”

He ignored her, “And if you’re parents aren’t home when we call, you’re staying in Laurie’s room tonight.”

“Mr. Forman that’s not necessary,” Jackie was slightly embarrassed about all this attention, an absolute first for Jackie. 

“Jackie, just give up, it’s easier to agree with him,” Kitty told her, as she dialed and placed an order. 

“I’ll go pick up the pizzas,” Steven offered, “Jackie you want to go?”

“Sure,” she followed him out. There were zero reasons two people needed to pick them up but they had been surrounded by people for a week straight.

On the way to the car, Jackie decided to ask him what she’d asked Kitty.

“Hey, Steven, do you think I’m a lot of trouble?”

He didn’t even need to think about it, Jackie was a big personality. Anyone who’d ever met her could tell you that. But if she wasn’t she wouldn’t be Jackie, “If you weren’t a little bit, I probably wouldn’t be in this relationship. Besides I’m enjoying turning you into quite a delinquent.”

She swatted his chest.

“I’m going to focus on the fact you called this a relationship, now get me some food.”

He slung his arm around her waist as they walked to the car, “Yes, Dear.”

Kitty and Red watched the exchange from the center of the kitchen.

“Kid is head over heels for that one,” Red muttered.

“Who are you talking about Red?”

“Doesn’t matter, they’re both too far gone. And they don’t even know it yet.”

“I remember a couple of kids like that once,” Kitty said.

Red didn’t smile at people, most of them were reserved for Kitty, this one was no different. “Yeah, I’d say it worked out pretty well for those two kids don’t you think?”

“I think it did,” she smiled and then kissed him on the cheek.


	22. School Daze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Double post. 21/22 These have some important bits for later but are definitely more fluff chapters. And I want to get to the good stuff.

Labor Day passed and school was back in session.

Steven and Jackie were aware that plenty of eyes watching them as they passed in the halls.

Apparently, rumors were flying about them, which was odd as they had to of been spotted nearly every time they went out all summer.

Grant darted away from both of them when he saw them in the hall. Jackie assumed it was because he heard what happened to Kelso and guessed correctly.

“See you at lunch,” Steven said as he wandered off to class.

She smiled, appreciating the offer.

Later in the day she found Fez and sat with him. She’d let Steven make the decision. She could feel the stares of random classmates burrowing into her skull.

Being part of the gossip mill, Jackie knew at least two rumors were going around, the one Michael spread, and something about her and Steven. But none of them made their way directly to Jackie.

That was Steven’s doing. Not intentionally, but they were clearly something, and no one was going to mess with Jackie while she was with Steven. It felt so like Grease to her, she was his Pink Lady.

Some new salacious news would pop up in the next few days so she simply had to ignore it until then.

The next day she told him she’d drive herself because she had cheer.

As the girls broke down into small groups to practice parts of the routine, Marcy, the captain, approached Jackie.

“Jackie honey,” her voice was sickeningly sweet, “you really should have gotten the okay beforehand.”

“For what?” 

“Breaking up with Michael Kelso, of course.”

Jackie’s face blanched, “Excuse me?”

“I mean, Hyde’s all good for a quick fling but boyfriend material? Honey, this could seriously ruin your reputation.”

“And that’s already suffered enough, don’t you think,” Amanda said quietly.

Jackie held her rage back.

“It wasn’t a good move, a serious downgrade if you ask me.”

Jackie smiled serenely and shot back with, “Well, I didn’t ask you and I wouldn’t, my dating life is not squad business.”

Marcy looked at her with fake pity, “We’re only looking out for you, the squad is a family.”

No, her family was waiting for her in Eric Forman’s basement.

“Is that why you were all talking about me behind my back after I broke up with Michael? Because we’re family?”

It all was very clear. Jackie walked away, picked up her bag, and headed towards the door.

“Jackie, where are you going?” Marcy called.

Jackie turned and gave a dazzling smile, full of all the superiority she could muster. “I’m Jacqueline Burkhart, I don’t need this.”

“Jackie wait.”

“Have fun replacing me for the top of the pyramid.”

Jackie got in the car and drove home, she needed to get out of this uniform.

“You will never guess what I just heard,” Fez said running into the basement.

“If it’s something dirty, cool, if it’s something dirty about you, pass,” Hyde said not bothering to look at him. 

Fez nearly exploded with the news, “Jackie quit the cheer team.”

All three spoke at once,

“What?” Eric.

“When?” Donna.

“Fez, how do you know that?” Steven.

“I was at the Hub and a couple of cheerleaders came in talking about it. Jackie got mad and walked out.”

Not long after, Jackie arrived.

“Hey guys,” Jackie said.

“Hey Jackie, anything important happen at school today?” Fez asked.

“Not really.” She sat in Steven’s lap on his chair. It was quickly becoming her favorite spot in the basement.

“So you didn’t quit the cheer team?” Eric asked.

Jackie nearly fell out of the chair, if Steven hadn’t grabbed for her she would have landed on the floor.

“Guess, that’s a yes,” Eric said.

“No, I mean not officially. But if I’m done I don’t care.”

“What happened,” Donna asked. 

“They decided that my business was their business and it wasn’t.”

“Which was?” Fez asked, he loved being up close to rumors and drama.

“Marcy told me that I should have asked for permission before breaking up with Michael.”

Hyde’s whole body tensed.

“Those bitches,” Donna shouted.

“Thank you. And they wanted me to break up with Steven,” Jackie said angrily. 

“Why?” 

“They don’t have a reason and they said my reputation was damaged enough already and called themselves my family, and it practically hit me in the face. I’m not one of them anymore.”

“So you just quit?” Fez asked.

“I walked out, and I did say good luck replacing me, so probably.”

“But don’t you love cheer?” Steven asked her.

“I used to, but it’s so backstabbing. And I’m so tired of them checking my weight and telling me what to do all the time.” 

Jackie had never told him that and it made Hyde’s blood pressure raise, “They seriously check your weight?”

“I know, you get put on probation if you go up more than 4 pounds.”

“Yeah, I was going to tell you not to quit but screw that,” he said. 

“Good. And I am so fed up with the attitude. Like here- Hey Eric, do you want me and Steven to break up?”

“It was a little weird at first but what do I care? Just like-don’t do anything on the couch okay?”

See she gestured towards Eric. Her rant completed she nestled into Steven’s arms. “Wait, how did you guys know?”

Fez told her, “I was at the Hub when the cheerleaders were talking about it.”

“Oh hell, this is probably going to be all over school tomorrow. I’m sorry,” she turned towards Steven pouting.

“God, you’re trouble,” but he tugged her closer. 

“But you like me anyway?”

“I guess,” he grumbled. 

“That’s a yes,” she told the rest of the group, like it wasn’t written all over his face.

At lunch the next day Jackie was approached by a girl she didn’t know.

“Jackie, can I talk to you?” She was pretty with bouncy blonde hair. She could be a perfect cheerleader.

“Sure.”

“I’m Crystal, I know you don’t know me, but I heard you quit cheer.”

“Not officially but I guess I did.”

Crystal’s face grew brighter with the confirmation. “Any chance you’re interested in the Gymnastics team?”

“What?” Jackie asked. This was the strangest week she’d had in a while.

“I know, we’re not a popular as the cheerleaders but I’ve seen you at the football games. I know you can flip and tumble and dance. I think you’d fit in perfectly as a floor gymnast.” 

“I-I never thought about it.” 

“We meet on Monday afternoons in the aux gym. If you’re interested come by the gym and check us out. You can practice with us if you want or leave. No pressure.”

“I’ll think about it.”

In truth, Jackie loved cheer, but it was the dancing and attention she loved. The cheer _team_ was not something she loved.

And just like that Jackie found a new place to belong.

It was hard work. Some days she did so many flips her brain felt scrambled, but she was as sore as she was in cheer, but thankfully no one dropped her here.

The biggest difference was the girls. She felt right into place with them.

They joked and made fun of her once they got acquainted with her, but not in a mean-spirited way. It was all light and fun.

With equipment stored away, the girls sat around stretching out after practice when Alice said.

“Hey Jackie, I saw there was a broody guy in the parking lot leaning on your car.”

“Curly hair and sunglasses?”

“That’s the one.”

“That’s Jackie’s boooyfriend,” Jill teased dragging the term out. 

“Does he have a brother?”

“Sorry.”

“Damn, oh well,” Alice sighed.

“Like you have time for boys Miss National Honor Society,” Emory taunted her.

“I could make time if most of the boys at this school weren’t so idiotic.”

“You’re going to be single forever if you don’t go for idiots.”

Jill took over the conversation, “Have we heard the latest gossip?”

“Probably what is it?” Emory asked.

Jill kept everyone up to date with every bit of gossip. Jackie wondered if she had recorders stashed around the school.

“That our dear backstabbing Crystal here is the reigning school bitch.”

Jackie nearly snorted out a laugh that Crystal would be called that, she was possibly the nicest person Jackie had ever met. “Who came up with that?”

“According to a bunch of people, Crystal conspired to steal Jackie from the cheer team.”

Crystal seemed thoroughly amused, “How exactly did I do that?”

“You poisoned the cheer team against Jackie so that she wanted to leave and then you nabbed her when the poor girl was down and defenseless. Oh, and you didn’t do it because Jackie can backflip like no one’s business, you did it because Marcy is your nemesis.”

“Well, of course, that’s why.” she turned to Jackie, “She stole my lipgloss in the sixth grade.” 

“Was it a good lipgloss?” 

“It was. It was the perfect shade of berry.” Crystal wiped the non-existent tear away.

“I understand, that is solid grounds for destroying someone.”

“They’re even saying you started those stupid rumors about Jackie to get the cheer team to question her and now no one believes them.”

“Wait no one believes those rumors anymore?” Jackie asked.

“They were iffy from the start because of you’re fabulously placed soccer kicks, but now everyone thinks they were Crystals’ first step in stealing you away.”

Jackie was nearly singing, “Joining this team was the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Her mood was so high she couldn’t stand being in the gym any longer. Jackie picked up her bag.

“Bye ladies, I have a guy waiting for me.”

“He better be a good kisser if you’re leaving my ring of gossip,” Jill shouted after her.

“Oh, he is,” Jackie shot back to a room full of laughter.

Something about the girls was easier. Jackie was still finding her footing but it was easy from the start.

They helped her finesse some of her flips for precision instead of only looks. If she didn’t know how to do something one of them would work with her until she got it, not scream at her until she wanted to cry.

But more than that, they were easy to talk to. It was nice to have girlfriends. Jackie forgave Donna, but that didn’t mean she forgot. They could be friends again, but she didn’t know if she could let Donna be one of her best friends again.

There was no history with the girls and they seemed to like her because of her quirks and attitude, not in spite of them.

Jill was the group gossip, she was also on the newspaper and collected stories like Eric collected Star Wars.

Alice was no-nonsense when it came to practice and competition, but she was the goofy one when she relaxed.

Emory was the best for being a shopping buddy. While she could gossip, she loved fashion and made her own clothes to fit her style when she couldn’t find what she wanted.

Crystal was an athlete through and through. She played softball and soccer, which she was trying and failing to get Jackie to join. And Jackie liked her the most. She was nice and gave Jackie a chance at joining the team.

Simply put these girls were not very popular, how that was possible Jackie couldn’t begin to understand, but they were cool.

Compared to the cheer team there was no competition. Jackie didn’t get weighed, they didn’t care who she hung out with or dated. If she showed up to practice and worked was as far as they cared about the team. But they were nice. She’d hung out with all of them together or separately.

They were special and she adored them already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Moly I thought this will probably be done in like 10 more chapters. Checks word count this is a little less than half way. Um…. So we have a while to go yet. I think I’m almost done writing it though, but then I have 2-3 shorts to add separately. I started working on this one because I got a little stuck on my other stories. I should have known I can’t work on 2 at once. I’m so bad at it.


	23. Surrender

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone returns home to Point Place

Jackie was biting her lip, he was pretty sure if she kept it up that it would be bleeding pretty soon.

Hyde tried to let it go, but he could feel her mind spinning.

“Jackie?” 

“Huh?”

“Is there something you’d like to share with the class?” He asked her.

“What? No. I-well,” she stammered.

“You’ve been hanging out down here too much if that’s all you got. You’re acting like Eric.”

She shot a glare at him, but even that was better than her being twitchy.

“My dad’s home.”

“Good, someone should be.”

“The damn maid ratted us out.”

He went through everything they’d done and he couldn’t think of anything the maid saw that would get Jackie in trouble. He’d specifically never been in her bedroom if they didn’t know for sure that they were alone.

“So?”

“So, he wants to meet you.” 

“And you don’t want him to?”

“Do you want to meet him?” She asked.

“No.” As far as Hyde was concerned he’d never like Jack for ditching his daughter so often.

“See. You’d have to dress up and wear a tie and he’ll be mean it’ll be totally awful.”

She wasn’t saying it, but if Jackie had brought it up at all it meant that it was important to her. Hyde really didn’t want to meet Jack, but he knew there were things you had to do when you were dating someone.

“I can clean up,” he told her.

“What?”

“I mean, I’d have to eventually right?”

Jackie’s mouth fell open completely at a loss for words.

“I-if you want to,” she finally got out.

“I don’t want to, but like it’s a thing.”

“Yeah, I guess.” 

“Just tell me when,” he said.

Jackie smiled brightly, “Okay.”

Steven tried. He’d worn the dress pants and shirt and worn a tie, even dress shoes he borrowed from Red, and he’d left the glasses in the car.

Jackie Burkhart was the only girl he’d do this for. And even that was pushing it. Promises of her making it up to him if he didn’t dump her after tonight led him to imagine what a great time he was about to have.

He had beer and a stash hidden in his room for the occasion.

She was wearing a conservative dress with a cardigan, she looked like she was playing dress-up because this wasn’t the girl he’d been with all summer. But in some way he got it, they had roles to play.

Easy plan.

Make a good first impression, don’t insult her dad, probably never see him again.

He shook the man’s hand.

“Steven Hyde,” he introduced himself.

“I don’t know that name, what’s your father do?”

Jackie had already told him what to answer for that, which he thought was ridiculous. “I’m not sure. I don’t live with him anymore, I live with the Forman’s.”

Strictly she’d told him to say he was working out of state, but less was more. For all he knew, Bud could still be in the state.

“Red Forman?”

“Yes sir.”

Jackie smiled at him. She knew how much he hated this but here he was in a jacket and tie, saying sir.

“Good man. His son is the twitchy one right?”

“Yes, he is Dad.”

“Do you have a job boy?”

“It’s Steven,” Jackie corrected.

“Of course,” he wanted it to seem like an accidental slip, but he also wanted Hyde put in his place, “do you have a job, Steven?”

“For over two years.”

“A good one?”

“Good enough for now,” Steven told him, “It has good hours for school.”

“Hmm. Good,” Jack waited a moment before saying, “Jacqueline, go to your room for a few minutes.”

“But-”

“Now please.”

She looked between her dad and Steven.

Jackie went up the stairs but didn’t go to her room. She struggled to hear what they were saying.

“Come and sit Steven Hyde, I did a bit of digging into your record. Mediocre grades, in trouble a few times. Do you think you’re any better than the last boy?”

He had to keep calm, but his blood was boiling with Jack insinuating that he and Kelso were on the same level.

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?” Jack practically looked down his nose at him, “Why are you so much better for my daughter than the Kelso boy?”

“Because I don’t hurt her. I don’t lie to her, and I don’t hurt her.”

Jack surveyed Steven, appraising him for something. Steven didn’t flinch. He didn’t try to put up his wall of Zen. He looked Jack straight in the eye and let him determine whatever it was he wanted.

He knew Jackie would be sitting on the stairs listening.

“Jacqueline, come here.”

She hurried back down.

Jack waited for Jackie to stand directly in front of him, “What does he mean hurt you?” 

Her eyes widened. “Nothing daddy, just-

“I know when you’re lying, you’re not as good at it as your mother. Now what does he mean?”

Hyde had always loved her big eyes, they made her stand out, but right now she looked like one of those creepy paintings. She was scared and haunted, but also caught between the whole truth and lying to her father. No matter how distant, Hyde knew she loved him and his opinion meant a lot to her.

“Kelso was going out with other girls while they were dating,” Steven answered for her.

Jackie looked at his daughter, “And what else? I know there’s more to it.”

She looked at Steven, her mouth gaping open. How did you tell your father the first boy you ever loved, the one he didn’t like start rumors about you, and your current boyfriend attacked him because of it? This was a misstep on her part, she hadn’t thought it through to the end.

“He-he was telling lies about me to other boys.” It was enough of the truth. “And a boy asked me out over the summer. I didn’t know him that well but he took me to dinner and he- well I left early when he told me what Michael said, but he drove and no one was home to come get me. I was scared. Steven brought me home and made sure I was safe.”

“I think I want to speak to the Kelso’s.”

“No,” Jackie shouted. 

“And why not?”

They were caught, here was the end of all of it. His stomach dropped as the words came out of his mouth. “ I did something,” Hyde admitted. 

“Steven, don’t please,” Jackie pleaded with him.

“Jackie the whole thing is based on everyone keeping their mouths shut. Kelso and I got into a fight about this when he admitted what he did.”

“I see. And I take it, there was some injury or it wouldn’t be such a problem.”

“He wasn’t too great after.”

“I’m sure if you had it to do again you wouldn’t,” Jack said in his most condescending former lawyer tone.

“Yes, maybe not as much but I would.”

That surprised Jack, “Why?”

“Look, Jackie got extremely lucky that the guy wasn’t more aggressive or took her somewhere else. Kelso knew what could happen, and he was either stupid and thought it was funny or a game or he knew what he was doing and trying to get Jackie into a bad situation.” Hyde finished, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to Jackie.”

“Hmm,” was all he said. 

None of them much felt much like dinner so they ate lightly to get it over with then Jackie walked Steven to his car. “I am so sorry, I didn’t know he did that, and I didn’t know he’d react that badly.”

“I did, who’d want me dating their daughter?”

“Steven, you’re worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.” Jackie worried her lips between her teeth again, “You’re not leaving are you?”

He knew what she was asking.

“I’m going home,” he raised his hand to rest on her cheek, “but you’re still my chick.”

He watched the relief wash over her. Her eyes softened and her shoulders relaxed.

“As much as I’d like to piss him off a little bit more, I’m not going to kiss you with him watching,” Hyde told her.

“Raincheck for tomorrow?” Jackie asked.

“If he ever lets you leave the house again.”

“Then you’ll have to be Romeo and climb up the trellis to kiss me.”

“You ever finish that play?” He asked her.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I’ll see you soon if not tomorrow.”

Jackie waved as he drove off. Wishing she was in the front seat of that car driving off into the night, she returned to the house.

Her father was sitting on the couch with a glass of something.

He sighed when she came in, “Jackie, why do you keep choosing boys like this?”

“I don’t. Daddy, I know he’s not what you expect. But he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. He gave up all of his friends because they lied to me and wouldn’t apologize, friends he’s had since he was five years old.”

“I know what I said before about Kelso, but you were right he wasn’t good for me. But Steven’s my best friend. He’s honest, he’s taken care of me when I didn’t have any other friends. Even when you were gone.” She hadn’t added the last part to be cruel, but it was the truth.

“I’ll think about this,” Jack said.

Jackie kissed him on the cheek and climbed the stairs to her room, she felt much older than her sixteen years. 


	24. Just The Way You Are

Jackie didn’t ask permission to go out the next day, she set her alarm making sure to wake up early and be gone. Ask forgiveness, not permission.

She pulled up to the Forman’s and went right to the basement.

Steven looked like he’d had as good of a night as she had.

“You escaped,” he pointed out the obvious.

“Got up before him, though he’d know I’m here if he wants to find me since he knows where you live.”

“Let’s make the most of it,” he pulled her into his room. 

They were laying on his cot listening to music. It was tense as they half expected to be interrupted any moment with Jack dragging his daughter out of the house.

“So that went well,” Steven finally said.

Jackie laughed. “You can say that again.”

“Were you okay after I left?”

“I felt like I was five years old. I didn’t think he’d notice,” she admitted.

“He was a lawyer, catching people’s tells is practically his job. We were stupid.”

“Yeah. I’m exhausted. And Steven I’m so sorry for all of that. It’s not that I’m ashamed of you, I don’t want you to change at all. I love you, and-”

Steven’s face softened in a way she’d never seen before. And she realized what she said. She’d never said it to him before. It was just so natural it came out. She felt her face flush and she smiled nervously. This was Steven, so he wouldn’t make a big deal about it, but he didn’t seem freaked out.

“and um, I just-” Jackie completely lost her train of thought.”

“Just what?”

She refocused on what she had been saying, “My parents aren’t like the Forman’s or Bob, if they don’t like what you’re doing they still let you do it. My parents try to ruin things if they don’t like what I’m doing. I should have warned you before last night.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Like once, I was in a dance class and they didn’t like the teacher so they had her fired. My dad’s gotten people transferred from their jobs if he didn’t like something about them. I can’t lose you. If I made you feel like you aren’t good enough I’m sorry because you are, but I didn’t want something to happen and then you run.”

“If I was going to run I would have before this started. At least he cares about you.”

Jackie looked so small and sad, “He cares today and about this, he’ll forget about me sooner or later.”

Hyde’s arms tightened around her.

“It’ll be okay.”

“You want to do a circle?”

“Not if you’re still worried your dad is going to come and grab you. Besides this is okay.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I want to ask you something” Hyde had wondered for a while, but he’d never asked.

“Hmm?”

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but how long have your parents been leaving you alone?”

She stiffened but didn’t move to get up.

“Like I said you don’t have to, I was just wondering.”

Jackie relaxed and was quiet for a long time.

“Feels like always,” she said. “I used to have a nanny, so I never noticed before. Then when I started middle school she left, I don’t know if she wanted to or they fired her. Then I started seeing that they were never home.”

Hyde felt his chest get hot and realized she was crying.

“I think my mom left me, I haven’t seen or heard from her in almost a year. Daddy says she’s on vacation but I don’t believe him.”

He kissed the top of her head and held her tighter.

“Mine did the same thing. Budd got arrested and then came home for a few weeks, then ditched us. Edna used to leave, guess that was better than when she was there though.”

“Steven,” Jackie said seriously. “I hate your mother.”

He chuckled.

“Me too.”

“But at least she did one good thing, she had you,” Jackie’s arms tightened around him.

Hyde could barely breathe. No one had ever said they were glad he was born, quite the opposite, especially his mom.

He’d never been happy that his mom had left him. Even if he had ended up with the Formans, but right now he was thrilled. Because he was sure if he was still living with Edna, Jackie wouldn’t be with him resting with her head on his chest.

Jackie felt like she was dragging herself around that day. She’d stayed up figuring out her plan for when the worst happened. She’d gotten caught off guard once, she wouldn’t be again.

Her dad had only cut her off with Kelso, she couldn’t go back to working as the cheese maiden but she could get another job. Maybe at the bookstore, that way she wouldn’t spend all of her money like she would if she worked in a clothing shop.

There was the possibility of being grounded, but that would require him being home to enforce it. For a time he could keep her out of the basement, but that didn’t account for school, they didn’t have any classes together but she had cheer practice time, her father didn’t know she’d quit.

She hoped he didn’t think of sending her to another school. Her father would be that spiteful, but it would look bad for Jack to pull her out of school in the city where he was a councilman.

Maybe she could pretend to sleepover at Donna’s and sneak over and make up other girlfriends. A few girls on the cheer squad owed her for their own fake sleepovers at her house while they went wherever. The girls from gymnastics would probably go for it. It would work, and she had to hope Steven wouldn’t get bored with her in the meantime. 

Some of this she confessed, but not all of it.

She drove home and the phone rang shortly after she walked in. 

“Hello.”

“Hey, you get home okay?’

She wore the involuntary smile that always found its way to her face whenever he did this, “Yes, Steven I got home just fine. No one’s going to grab me in the driveway.”

“Yeah, but you were tired when you got here.”

“I appreciate the concern.”

“Jacqueline, is that your young man?”

“Hold on Steven, yes Dad.”

“I’d like the phone please.” Jackie didn’t move but let him take the phone from her.

“Steven, yes, I’ve given it some thought and I’ll be watching you. Good. You better not let anything happen to my daughter.”

Jackie stood there shell shocked, she wondered if Steven felt the same way.

Snapping out of it, she rushed over and hugged him when he hung up. “Thank you, daddy. Can I ask you something?

“Of course sweetheart.”

“Could Steven be in trouble for what happened? Over me?”

“What happened exactly?”

“Off the record?”

Jack nodded.

“Steven gave him two black eyes, a broken nose, and cracked ribs, maybe his cheek too.” 

“How long ago was this?” He wasn’t exactly sorry this had happened to the Kelso boy, he was a menace.

“The end of July, beginning of August.”

“Witnesses are the problem,” Jack muttered more to himself. 

“The Formans, Donna and Fez. Fez was closest to Kelso.”

“It could be a problem if he corroborates the story, it could go up to aggravated assault. I can make a few quiet inquiries, being that the Kelso boys are always in trouble it could be to his advantage.” He put his hand on Jackie’s shoulder, “I’ll take care of it.”

She hoped her father would be around long enough to take care of it.


	25. How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted 3 chapters today. I might get a 4th one up in a bit.   
> This is just some silly fluff

On the best of days, Steven Hyde was not a sound sleeper. He’d gotten much better since moving into the Formans’ basement, but he didn’t sleep easily and most unusual noises, no matter how subtle, woke him.

The furnace going off or the hot water tank buzzing didn’t bother him. But if Eric ever snuck downstairs to watch TV, it would wake Hyde before Eric had gotten halfway down the stairs.

Tonight the wind was blowing in a way that promised a storm before the night was through.

It had been harder to fall asleep the last few days after the disaster of a dinner with Jackie’s dad. He worried about whether confessing about the fight had been a stupid move. But Jackie always got him to do stupid things willingly.

He hadn’t quite fallen asleep when he’d heard an unfamiliar click somewhere downstairs. It was subtle and anyone else probably wouldn’t have noticed it. He got up immediately and flung the door open.

There stood a startled Jackie staring back at him.

Hyde relaxed. “Jackie, what are you doing here?”

“You did say open invitation right?” She forced a smile like it was a joke.

Hyde was angry but not at her, “Your dad seriously left you again?”

“Yeah, and I was wondering…”

Hyde placed a hand gently behind her neck pulling her closer and kissed her quickly.

“Let me grab my stuff,” he turned to get his things from his room when her hand reached out and lightly grabbed his arm.

“You don’t have to do that,” Jackie told him. 

“You’re not sleeping on the couch.”

“The thing is, if I all I wanted was to sleep here Mrs. Forman basically gave me the same invitation for Laurie’s room.”

“I didn’t know that. Then why didn’t you just go up?”

Jackie bit her bottom lip. “I was thinking maybe I could stay with you if that’s okay?”

“Not that much room,”

“I don’t have to,” she started. Before she finished he already had her hand in his pulling her into his room.

It wasn’t much but she’d been in there plenty of times before.

Jackie pulled off her jacket and tossed a bag in the corner after pulling out a pink throw blanket.

She was already wearing a pair of plaid pajamas.

“Jackie tell me you didn’t walk here at night in this wind in your pajamas.”

“The Tyler’s are on vacation. I parked in their driveway.”

“Next time you’re going to act like a delinquent, let me know in advance.”

“I didn’t plan to.”

“You shouldn’t be walking around at night,” he didn’t like the idea of her out at night. She wasn’t a great driver as it was.

“It’s only four houses away,” she shot him a look.

Hyde knew he should stop arguing before it turned into a real argument.

Hyde got on his cot.

Jackie laid down next to him but kept her distance.

Both kept staring at the ceiling.

“Why does this feel so awkward,” Jackie voiced his same thoughts. 

He laughed at her. They had to get over themselves.

“Come here,” He turned on his side and pulled her the short distance to his chest.

“That is better,” Jackie said as she snuggled down into his chest.

“How come you came over? Not that I’m minding.”

“I don’t know, with the storm, I just didn’t want to be alone. Not when I could be right here.”

“I’m glad you came over,” he told her.

“Me too.”

In no time, Jackie fell asleep.

Steven stayed awake a little longer. He felt like he was already living someone else’s dream. Here he was practically an orphan, but Jackie left her comfortable mini-mansion to come and sleep next to him on an old army cot. She’d told him she loved him, he could count on one hand the people who’d ever told him that, and he didn’t even need the fingers to do so.

Sleep didn’t usually come easy for Hyde, but with Jackie sleeping on his chest, his fingers threaded through her hair and the rhythm of her breathing lulled him into a peaceful sleep.

It was storming but school still happened despite the rain, but this was a torrential downpour. Any umbrella would just get damaged in the wind.

Jackie braided her hair in anticipation for the mad dash to and from the car but her clothes fared much worse.

Her shirt was sticking to her skin and she was shivering as the water clung to her.

Steven had his denim jacket and they covered their heads and ran together into the school.

“It cannot be legal to make us drive in that,” Jackie said irritated about her clothes.

“Course it is, we get in an accident they have something to pin on us. Too emotional to be driving, not paying attention, never mind I can’t see two inches in front of the car.”

“I’m going to look it up and see if I can sue them,” she huffed.

Then she shivered again.

“Here,” Steven held out his jacket for her. “Wear this, it’s not much but it’ll help keep you warm.”

“If I wear this here, it says something,” Jackie pointed out. 

“Coats don’t talk unless you’re really lit, and even I haven’t been that high.”

“Steven.”

“Just wear it alright,” he practically growled at her.

“Ok, I’ll wear it jeez.”

“And don’t put any girly crap on it.” 

“And I was going to sew my I heart Abba patch to it in homeroom,” she pouted at him.

“Jackie.”

“I will roll up the sleeves and nothing more, scouts honor. Besides, you know I don’t know how to sew.”

Jackie pulled on the jacket. It smelled like him. It helped keep the cool air away from her.

Jackie wasn’t a thief, but Steven should count himself very lucky if she ever gave him his jacket back.

Emory helped Jackie find a near-identical match when they were shopping for her gymnastics gear.

Jackie took the tags off and left it in his room.

He’d know instantly it wasn’t the same jacket, but that was just something she’d deal with when he confronted her and not a second before.

Of course, he found it almost instantly. It was missing some of the worn spots and felt stiff from never being worn.

“Jackie, what’s this?” He came out of his room holding up the new jacket. 

“It’s your jacket,” she said innocently.

“No, it isn’t.”

“It is now, it looks just like the other one.”

“What happened to it?”

“Nothing it’s fine. I just thought you would like a new one.”

She was being coy about it.

He wanted her to say she stole it and she wouldn’t do it. But he also didn’t ask her to give it back.

“I was at the mall and I saw it and I got it for you, I figured you’d like it because it looks the same as the other one. Unless you’ll finally let me buy you some clothes?” She looked at him hopefully.

“You went shopping again?”

“I had to get something to wear for gymnastics.”

“Oh right,” he hadn’t thought about that. He momentarily forgot about his jacket, “I’m going to miss the cheerleader outfit.”

“If that’s the case,” she leaned closer to whisper in his ear, “I do have my old one in my closet.”

“Really?”

“Anyway, we don’t have uniforms but we all have the same kind of outfits, this one covers my arms. I’m just not sure about it. Can you tell me if you like it?”

“Okay,” he didn’t know why she was telling him. There were four girls on the team plus Donna who knew what it was supposed to look like.

She went into his room to change.

Through the door, she kept talking to him, “I don’t know if this is cute or not what do you think?”

“Jackie what do I know about-

He finally turned as she came out of his room. She was wearing a skin-tight black leotard with her hair swept up. There wasn’t an inch of her skin that wasn’t on full display or being shown off by the conforming fabric.

“I’m supposed to wear black tights with it but for the moment this is it.” She gave a twirl.

Hyde wasn’t sure at all if he was okay with people seeing her in this outfit, but he certainly liked it.

Jackie giggled as he picked her up over his shoulder and walked into his room.

“It’s more effort, but I’m not a man who’s afraid of a little hard work.”

“Why does that only apply to my clothes?” Jackie asked as he put her down again. 

“What else is worth it?”

She slapped his chest before she pulled him down for a kiss. 


	26. You’re So Vain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, last one for today. I posted starting with CH 23 today.

Fez ran into the basement.

“I need everyone to listen and not freak out.” 

“Oh no, what weird thing did you do now?” Jackie asked.

“Wait, we don’t want to know that,” Hyde added to everyone’s agreement.

“I got a call this morning, Kelso’s back in town.”

Jackie bit her lips together, “Look Fez, you can still talk to him and be his friend if you want. It’s okay.”

Steven watched her, she meant it partly. She had the most forgiving heart.

“I don’t want to talk to him, he hurt Jackie and he hurt us because he hurt Jackie.”

“Fez,” Jackie said in a small voice, “thank you.”

Fez gave her back a weak smile.

“Hold on,” Eric got up and ran up the stairs returning a few minutes later.

“My dad switched the lock after the fight. He finally gave me the key to make spares so new keys.”

Hyde, Donna, and Fez reached out and took their copies.

“Jackie,” Eric called her.

“Huh?” she asked.

“Your key,” Eric reached it out to her.

“I get one?”

“Well, yeah.”

She jumped up and hugged him.

Eric stood there frozen not sure what to do when she let go. She was smiling so brightly.

“Thank you, Eric,” she busied herself putting the key on her ring.

Donna looked at her awkward boyfriend, and her stupidly happy friend and Hyde, who was also surprised and trying to mask it with Zen, but she could tell he was pleased with Eric. Even Fez was happy.

Eric’s small gesture had meant a lot and no one had asked him to do it.

She sighed, she loved all these weirdos in the basement, but she knew she was going to regret this.

Once they all relaxed and started watching TV she spoke, “So Eric, are you still going to the Comic Convention?”

Jackie and Steven were sitting in his car by the lake.

“Are you going to be okay?” Hyde asked her.

“I think I’m fine, but I’m worried Steven. Donna said he was calm when he told you guys what he did. If it was a joke to him I’d almost understand, I would know I’m just dealing with an immature ex who trash-talked me. But she said it was weird.”

Hyde did not want to have this conversation, but Jackie needed to know to protect herself if he wasn’t around.

“It was-” He stilled remembering the way his former best friend looked when he’d admitted what he’d said about Jackie, “like he was too calm almost happy he’d done it.”

“And that freaks me out. It’s calculated. Michael Kelso doesn’t calculate.”

Hyde had thought the same thing, but what if he’d gotten his role as the group idiot and just went along with it. After all he’d managed to sneak around without them knowing about it.

“It’ll be okay, and your dad can always do something right?”

“I don’t want to tell him.”

Steven nodded, “Not unless we have to.”

“We?” she asked.

“I don’t think you should have to explain it to your dad alone.”

She squeezed him, “You don’t know what that means to me.”

“You’re not alone, besides me and everyone else if you think Red Forman would let anything happen to you then you’re not paying attention.”

“Maybe I’ve been distracted,” she said playfully.

“Is that right?”

“I could be more distracted.”

There was no way to know how you’d react to someone without seeing them.

Jackie was at the hub grabbing lunch, Steven was working and she’d been at the basement every day, she wanted a couple of hours to herself.

The bell above the door rang and she heard her name.

“Jackie.”

Her blood ran cold. She knew she’d have to see him in this small town sooner or later, she’d just hoped she wasn’t alone when it happened.

She threw on her mask of indifference. “Kelso,” she said coolly.

“You don’t call me that,” he said sadly and clearly hurt. 

“I do now.” She glanced around, there were enough people that she should be fine if she didn’t go anywhere.

“Could we talk?”

“No. I don’t want to talk to you. I heard enough from Grant Billings,” she snapped.

“That wasn’t my fault,” he said quickly.

“Nothing ever is, is it?”

“Hyde beat the crap out of me and I didn’t do anything, I swear.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied in case anyone was listening in. She dropped her voice low, “I don’t know what you want, but you stay away from me and you stay away from Steven. I’m warning you.”

Kelso looked Jackie over and his face hardened.

“So you and Hyde?” 

Jackie didn’t flinch, “Not then.”

“You’re seriously wearing his jacket.”

“It’s just a jacket, it’s not that big of a deal,” she played it off. To anyone else, it could just be a jacket. But Steven took care of what he had and Jackie wouldn’t still have it if they weren’t seriously together.

“He’s always wanted you, it’s why he drove us apart. He tried that with Donna, he always wants what his friends have,” Kelso said almost frantically.

“Kelso, you did that. You hurt me how many times?”

Jackie hadn’t understood what Donna or Steven meant by Kelso got oddly calm, but she watched it happen in front of her. It frightened her.

He almost smiled when he asked her, “What would your father say if he found out his little princess is dating Hyde? I mean if I’m not good enough Hyde would be scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

Jackie shrugged it off, “Daddy knows, he likes Steven. But he doesn’t like you, and I know what Eric told you. Keep that in mind the next time you think about coming near us again, or threatening us.”

Her food was ready, Jackie grabbed the bag and breezed past him, Kelso caught her arm.

“Let go of me,” Jackie said loudly. Everyone turned to see what was happening.

“Jackie you need to listen to me.”

“She doesn’t have to do anything,” Eric shouted, “let go of her.”

“Forman.”

“Kelso, don’t make me tell you again.” 

Kelso let go of her arm. “Buddy hey, it’s been a while.” He was back to being sweet and friendly.

“I’m not your buddy anymore. Not after what you did.”

“Fine.” Kelso stormed out and they watched him walk away.

Jackie sagged against the wall, she’d never been afraid of Michael before but now that she’d seen it, she was shaken. 

“Let’s get you out of here,” Eric said.

She nodded and he put an arm around her guiding her outside.

“Thank you, Eric,” her voice shook.

He shrugged, “You’re one of us.”

Hyde was driving home when he saw Eric and Jackie walking. That wasn’t too weird, what was weird was his arm around her shoulders.

If it was anyone else he’d have been jealous or paranoid, but he could feel something else was up. He trusted Jackie and Eric would never try something on Donna.

He pulled over.

“Forman,” he shouted.

They turned the shift was so fast, the look of pure rage on Eric’s face and fear on Jackie’s, both disappearing in an instant when they recognized Hyde.

“Steven,” Jackie darted for him and launched herself at him. He stumbled back catching her.

“Nice to see you too.”

She buried her face in his neck.

Eric looked sad watching them.

“One of you want to tell me what’s up?”

“Kelso made a grand reentrance.” 

He pushed Jackie back from him, “Did he hurt you?

Jackie grabbed tight onto the collar of his shirt. “No, but he grabbed my arm.” 

He made to get away from her but she held tight, sometimes he forgot how smart she was, how well she knew him.

“No Steven, I told him to leave us alone, and then Eric, Eric yelled at him. I don’t think he’ll bother us.”

“You can’t be sure about that.”

“Don’t, you got lucky last time. Please, I can’t lose you.” Her eyes were begging him, he couldn’t leave her no matter how much he wanted to at the moment.

“You want to go back to the basement?” He relented.

“No,” she told him.

“You drive man?” He asked Eric.

“Yeah, the cruisers over here.” 

“We’ll wait here until you go, catch you at home tonight.”

He nodded.

They waited for Eric to drive past them.

Jackie didn’t even walk around the car she slipped in through his door and slid over.

He drove with no direction and they ended up in a secluded area near the woods.

A tear fell from her eyes.

“Hey, talk to me.”

“It’s not about him, it’s so stupid, just something Eric said.” 

“What did he say? Do I need to kick his ass too?”

“No, not like that.” Jackie tried to smile, “It’s just Eric told me ‘you’re one of us.’ I know it’s because of you but he picked me over Kelso,” she sniffled, “and even Fez, I told you it was stupid.”

Summer had thrown her for a loop, she’d felt cast out and unimportant. Her parents had done that to her way too often. He knew what it meant to her to genuinely be a part of the group.

He reached out and found her hand and squeezed it. “It’s not stupid.” 

They sat in the car, picking at the food uninterested in it.

“If I tell you something, do you promise not to go after him?”

“No,” Steven said honestly.

“Fine. I won’t tell you then.”

“Jackie.”

“You have to promise, no matter what.”

He practically growled, “Fine, I promise I won’t go after Kelso.”

She took a breath. “He was scary Steven. Like he flipped from Michael to something else. It was cold and angry, but calm.”

“I know. I’ve never seen him like that ever.”

“Do you think it’s because of us?” She asked him.

“He was like that before he found out about us.”

“Steven, I’m afraid he’ll try and break us up.”

“He won’t,” Hyde stroked her hair. “Well, he can try, but we won’t let him.”

“He was saying stuff about how you only want me because I was his and you did the same to Eric, I know he’s lying but I can’t believe he’d say that.”

“Donna was different. I didn’t- I’m not saying it like this.”

She smiled warmly, she knew what he was going to say.

“I didn’t care about Donna like this okay.” 

“I know that you let Donna go pretty easily back then, but he’s trying to get into my head. I don’t doubt you, Steven, but promise me that you won’t listen to him if he says anything about me?”

“Promise. I’ll probably try and hit him before he gets a word out.” 

“You can’t do that either. I love you and I’m not going to let you get into more trouble because of me.”

“I don’t know what else I can do.”

She laced her fingers through his, “Just stay with me.”

If that was all he could do, he would. 


	27. How Deep is Your Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/CW- From here on out there is stalking whenever Kelso is in the picture.

Kelso called Donna because he was sure she was on his side, now that some time had passed.

He misjudged her though.

“Kelso, you’re not allowed to come to the basement. If you want you can call Eric but he’ll tell you the same thing.”

“Why? What did I do?” He whined.

Donna stared at the receiver in her hand, did he genuinely not know? “Kelso, you admitted that you told everyone all those awful things about Jackie.”

“It was a joke, you know I was mad she broke up with me,” he said it like it was one big burn.

“Kelso, she could have been hurt, you know that. Don’t act like it was some innocent prank.”

“Oh come on Donna, talk to Eric.”

“No, Kelso I am not going to get you back into the basement. I don’t want to talk to you. And you need to ignore Jackie, she doesn’t exist to you.”

“Donna, she’s mine,” Kelso said indignantly.

“No she isn’t. She’s a person not a piece of property.”

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re right Kelso, I don’t. And I don’t want to, I don’t know what’s happened to turn you into this but you’re acting crazy. Leave Jackie alone, let it all die down and maybe you can come back.”

Donna didn’t believe a word of it, but she hoped Kelso would.

“Fine.” Kelso slammed the phone down and it clanged in Donna’s ear.

She hoped he’d take her advice, but then again it was Kelso.

A delivery man knocked on the door, when Jackie opened it she was presented with a bouquet of Daisies. She didn’t like Daisies but was thrilled that Steven had sent them. But that didn’t seem right.

Steven worked for every dime and he never splurged on delivery. And he knew she didn’t like daisies. They were so common, she liked special flowers.

And there was a little bit of Steven that was selfish. He would want to see her get excited over the flowers and probably kiss him for them. Steven was also cheap, he didn’t buy anyone presents, she might be the exception, but it still felt wrong.

She searched the flowers for the card, finding it she read the familiar handwriting, not the quick scratch of her boyfriends, but that of Kelso’s.

“Daddy,” she called.

“Good morning sweetheart,” he kissed her on the top of her head. “Happy Birthday.”

Jackie took no pleasure in her dad remembering for once.

“Daddy, Kelso sent me flowers.”

Jack stiffened, “Let me see the card.”

He took it from her and flipped it over. “I’ll take care of it, Jacqueline, don’t let this bother you. Why don’t you go over to your friend Dana’s for the day?” 

“It’s Donna,” she reminded him.

“Right, please don’t worry about this, I’ll see you for dinner.” 

“Okay.”

After she dumped the flowers in the trash, she got her bag and headed over to the basement, where she was greeted by her boyfriend. She didn’t care if he never called her his girlfriend. He was her boyfriend and he could just deal with it.

“Hey, Happy Birthday,” Steven told her.

Jackie hugged him. But he could tell she wasn’t with him.

“Your dad forget or something?”

“Not this year.”

“So what’s the matter?”

“If I tell you, you have to promise me you’ll let my dad deal with it? And not get upset?”

“No,” he was already upset. “Who has ever been calm when someone tells them don’t get upset.”

“Steven.”

“Jackie, just tell me.”

“Fine sit,” She waited for him to sit and then sat on his lap. Not for comfort or habit but to hopefully keep him from flying off the handle. “Kelso sent me flowers this morning.”

The flash of anger happened so fast she thought he might drop her on the floor.

“My dad said he’d handle it and I’m only telling you because not telling you would be lying and I don’t know what game he’s playing. But it’s my birthday, please don’t ruin it by leaving.”

She gave him the puppy dog eyes, that only worked on him once in a while.

He wanted to go punch Kelso’s face in again, maybe this time it would stick but Jackie could forgive a lot of things but him ditching her to get arrested on her birthday was probably past even her level of forgiveness.

He warred against himself, leaving and staying both had their benefits. Finally, he accepted what he had to do. “Your dad is doing something?”

She nodded, “He really hates Kelso.”

“Good, talking points for the next time you drag me to dinner with him.”

“So you won’t do anything? Promise,” Jackie asked.

“I will not do anything to Kelso.”

“Or his car?”

He tried not to smirk, she was learning to cover all of her bases, “Only because it’s your birthday.”

“Thank you.”

They went to get Donna but Bob said she wasn’t home.

So they spent the day with just the two of them. Hyde knew she would do it, it was her seventeenth birthday after all, and he’d dreaded it for weeks.

He allowed her for half an hour only, to play Dancing Queen on repeat. She managed to get in another fifteen minutes.

It was still warm enough he drove her to get ice-cream and the song came on the radio again, Jackie sang off-key loudly just to annoy Steven.

“That one was dedicated to Jackie Burkhart- happy seventeenth birthday Jackie,” the announcer’s voice came through the speakers.

She squealed in delight. “Did you do that?”

“No.” But a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. He was a terrible liar she leaned across the seat and kissed his cheek.

For all her blustering about liking shiny things and grand gestures, little things made her ecstatically happy.

They were standing in the kitchen, Jackie was getting ready to go home and get ready for her birthday dinner with her dad when he called. 

“I’m sorry Jacqueline I can’t make it for dinner tonight.”

“I understand,” it wasn’t the first time she’d been ditched on her birthday. “I’ll see if the Forman’s will let me stay for dinner.”

“Hey, I just saw Donna come home.” Steven said, “What if we all go out somewhere? Or you can call your gymnastics friends.”

Jackie thought about it, “How about that diner?”

“Seriously? You want to go there?”

“What it was sweet? You came and rescued me, it’s the day I realized how much I liked you.”

He gave her one of his rare smiles, he never let anyone else see those ones. It was soft and just for her, “Sure we can go there if you want.”

He held her hand which she loved and they walked across the driveway to Donna’s. The lights were on. She should have seen the trap coming but she was so distracted from the flowers and her dad she completely missed it.

They knocked, nothing.

“The lights are on,” Jackie said when no one answered.

“Yeah, come on. I know Donna’s home. Let’s just go in.”

They opened the door and a burst of screams startled her.

“SURPRISE!!!”

“You guys,” she turned to Steven and swatted him, “you liar.”

“Hey, I just said Donna was home, and look she is.”

“A crown for the Birthday Girl,” Mrs. Forman put a cheap plastic crown on Jackie’s head. She had fancier ones at home but she loved it anyway.

“Sorry I’m late, the bakery was backed up,” Jack Burkhart said walking through the door.

“Daddy?”

“I wouldn’t miss my little girl’s birthday.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time, but she didn’t care, she had him now.

The girls from her team were there too, Jill’s arms were crossed and she was scowling.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have a gift for you like good manners would suggest but I didn’t know we were coming to your party until I got here,” she said when Jackie came over to hug everyone. 

“We love you, Jill,” said Crystal.

Alice finished with, “But girl you have a big mouth.”

“I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Jill,” Emory said gently.

“One time, I ruined a surprise one time. This is team loyalty, Jackie,” and she stomped off to talk to anyone else.

“She’ll get over it,” Emory said, “she literally can’t not blow a surprise, she gets too excited.”

Hyde kept his mouth shut but he could see little bits of Jackie in her teammates. A group full of Jackie’s could probably take over the world. It was pretty terrifying to think there was more than one of her.

“Anyway, who are the boys, and which ones are single?” Alice asked.

“Only Fez. Hold on, everyone come here.”

Jackie introduced everyone to each other and they all started mingling.

Alice and Donna chatted, and the rest of them stood in surprised awe that both Jill and Emory hit it off with Fez.

“This was a great birthday, thank you, guys.”

“I know what might make it better?” Steven asked.

“No circle,” she whispered. “I have to get in the car with my dad. Can’t risk it.”

“Figured. I meant presents.”

“You didn’t have to,” she assured them.

“I’m sorry, did Jackie Burkhart just say she didn’t need presents?” Donna asked.

“I mean, they’re nice, and if you already got them,” Jackie said innocently.

“Okay that’s better,” Eric said, “for a minute you seemed too nice.” 

Jackie was less shallow, but she wasn’t a totally different person.

As everything wound down, Jack was putting the gifts in the car.

“You should send her away,” Steven said when he brought out a second load of gifts.

“What?” Jack asked surprised.

“To make sure she’s safe.”

“And where would you be?” He wasn’t about to entertain some notion of his daughter going off with her boyfriend.

“Here.”

“You’d have me send her away, away from you?”

“If she was safe then yes.”

Jack regarded Steven for a moment. This was definitely not the type of boy he wanted for his daughter. But there was something about him he could respect.

“I have a few avenues to explore before it gets to that point.”

“Alright.”

“Steven, I’m doing my best to keep her safe.”

Steven nodded and went back inside.

He didn’t exactly like this new boy, but he didn’t hate him either.


	28. Albatross

The rhythm of school, practice, work, and free time settled into a routine.

October looked like it would be calm, but Jackie started finding notes in her locker. They weren’t threatening, they weren’t even signed. Some were strange but one thing was clear. They were all from Michael.

Every note she took to the guidance counselor, then the assistant principal.

Repeatedly she heard,

“Oh, you have a secret admirer. You should be flattered.”

“There’s no harm in these.”

“Boys will be boys.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” It’s not that they couldn’t, but they refused to even try.

When Jackie took the notes to her father she got a very different answer.

He gave her a small journal, “Write down the date and the time you find each one. Then give them to me when you get home.”

“What good will that do?” Jackie asked, “They aren’t even signed.”

“But the notecard with the flowers was.”

Jackie’s eyes lit up.

“I can’t just make him disappear, I wish I could, but for now you keep track and I’ll do what I can for now.”

Jackie hugged him. She’d assumed he wasn’t doing anything about Kelso but he had been.

She kept track of the notes religiously. It was the only thing she had power over in this situation and she was going to take it.

Jack even had her list the last break time she’d been to her locker before finding another note.

He insisted she still take them to the school and make them log when it happened as well, it was all tedious, but it was something.

So far it was just notes. If Kelso saw her in the hall he didn’t say anything, but sometimes he gave her one of those cold calculating smiles.

It unnerved her to her core.

Kelso was never subtle, what would he do now that he was friendless and alone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one didn't fit with next chapter but I still need it. Reminder this is definitely not canon Kelso. 
> 
> Some of you have mentioned and I'm not going with a specific mental disorder, but he does have some Narcissistic tendencies so not a full explanation but taking bits here and there for the story.


	29. Black Magic Woman

Halloween was Jackie’s favorite holiday, well, after Valentine’s Day, and Christmas. But she loved Halloween.

Normally she’d have been something glamorous like Barbie, or a princess but she wanted to do a couples costume. When Steven refused to dress up she found a workaround.

She was extremely proud of herself for getting exactly what she wanted. Steven would no doubt be wearing an old band tee. No matter how she tried the only fashion influence she had over him was the new jacket he reluctantly excepted when she pilfered his old one. With that, she had limited options.

This year she dressed up as Stevie Nicks so she could still be super cute.

Her hair was blown out and she wore a hat and fringey shawl-like jacket she’d seen at the mall. She’d also found a flowy white dress she would never wear normally but it called to her. She honestly just wanted to spin circles in it all day.

When Steven saw her he smirked. He’d been expecting a princess too. “That’s not bad.”

Jackie scoffed at him. “What you mean is I look totally hot and cool, and you’re super sorry for not wearing a costume, but you’ll go put something together right now.”

“Yeah, all of that,” he kissed her, “except I don’t mean any of it.”

“Really?” she pouted.

“I’ll agree to you do look hot, but I’m not wearing a costume.”

“Come on Steven, it’s Halloween. You’re supposed to wear a costume.”

“No,” he said firmly

“You’re no fun.”

“Whatever,” he said casually.

“We’re taking Fez trick-or-treating are you going?” Jackie asked him swinging her sleeves back and forth to watch the fringe float in the air.

He didn’t want to, but the idea of Jackie out with only Donna, and scrawny Fez and Eric on Halloween didn’t sit well with him. The creeps were out normally, but now one of them was bothering her.

“Yeah, I’m going. Gotta make sure no one tries to steal his candy.”

“Except me right? I want some peanut butter cups.”

She was completely serious, she looked so innocent and cute. “Of course Doll, you can steal his peanut butter cups.”

Jackie beamed at him, “Good then I forgive you for not wearing a costume.”

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

He went up to Eric’s room.

“Foman change of plans, do you have something with a mask?”

Eric stared at him, “You’re going to dress up for Halloween? Is this because of Jackie, she is the Devil man if she got you to dress up?”

“Shut up, it’s not for Jackie exactly.”

“Then why are you dressing up?” Eric pressed. He wanted his friend to admit he was whipped.

“I’m not, I just need a mask.”

Eric thought about it, “Not until you tell me why? Then I’ll give you one.”

Hyde wanted a mask to cover his face, but he wasn’t sure it was worth it, still having someone else who was prepared wouldn’t hurt.

“Not letting Jackie go out with all the freaks wearing costumes when Kelso’s already grabbed her once.”

“You don’t think he’d?” Eric asked.

“I don’t know what the hell he’d do anymore. I can look like an idiot for one night just in case. Nothing happens, great. Something happens, well I’m there.”

Eric moved to open the trunk he’d brought down from the attic. “Okay, we’ve got your clowns, Clone trooper, Darth Vader.”

“You are such a nerd.”

“I am the nerd with the costumes,” Eric shot back, he sifted through some more things, “rest is mostly hats, eh, my old hockey mask.”

“I’ll take that one, it didn’t get much use anyway.”

“The puck was coming right at my head, what was I supposed to do?” Eric asked.

“Stop it with your face.”

“It would have hurt.”

“God you are still a baby,” Hyde said.

They wandered down into the kitchen still bickering.

Fez had shown up looking like a tall twelve-year-old in his batman costume.

“I am so excited for my first official trick-or-treating, I do not know if I should take the tricks or the treats.”

“Fez, you don’t- nevermind,” said Eric. He’d figure it out soon enough anyway.

“Jackie’s downstairs, we’ll get her then pick up Donna, then you have to wait for the siren to go off.”

“Jackie is right here,” said walking into the kitchen. “You know, Eric should have been Robin, he’s got the scrawny legs for it.”

“I’m not scrawny, I’m just… athletically challenged.”

“Right, okay. I grabbed an extra pillowcase in case Fez’s rips?”

“Sounds like we’re ready,” Eric said. “Suit up and let’s go get Donna.”

Hyde rolled his eyes, of course, Eric would make a production of it.

He put on the mask, and Jackie’s face lit up.

“What’s that?”

“Costume, I’m the killer from that camp slasher movie we watched.”

“Oh, Steven, you’re costume is dumb but you dressed up for me.”

“No, I didn’t, Fez almost cried and said everyone had to wear a costume.”

“No, I didn’t, Ai, I mean yes I did, Fez was very sad because everyone needs to wear a costume,” Fez stumbled over his explanation.

“Right, you’re wearing it for Fez. That’s such a nice gesture, you know for your friendship with Fez.” Jackie said carefully. 

Steven wanted to correct her, but she thought he’d done it for her. And he had, not the way she thought but it was still for her.

“Whatever,” he said coolly.

“Okay, let’s get some Candy,” Fez cheered.

Hyde didn’t hate Halloween, but it reminded him of dressing up as a kid and trying to hit as many houses as possible to have food stashed away for when his mom disappeared.

This one wasn’t so bad though.

The friends strolled up and down the streets in the neighborhood. Everyone had a good time.

At some point, like all children do on Halloween, Fez whined that his bag was too heavy. Hyde traded him for the empty pillowcase. As they walked Hyde would pluck out peanut butter cups and sneak them to Jackie.

Most people out in the area were young kids and their parents. Hyde was on his guard though, for anyone following them or getting too close without a small kid.

He figured as a group they wouldn’t be too hard to notice even with his mask on, Donna’s red hair was noticeable in the dark.

Nothing happened and Fez got a good haul, despite them all taking a candy tax since they went with him. Hyde went to bed relieved that the day was over.

But what he failed to notice while they were out was someone watching them all in the darkness far down the road. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When AHS Coven came out I may or may not have bought a sheer “jacket” thing that went to my knees because it screamed Misty & Stevie to me.


End file.
